DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

ENGINEERING
EC 55 /TRANSMISSION LINES AND WAVEGUIDES
SEMESTER: V
NOTES OF LESSON

UNIT -1 FILTERS
1. Neper
A neper (Symbol: Np) is a logarithmic unit of ratio. It is not an SI unit but is
accepted for use alongside the SI. It is used to express ratios, such as gain and loss,
and relative values. The name is derived from John Napier, the inventor of
logarithms.
Like the decibel, it is a unit in a logarithmic scale, the difference being that where
the decibel uses base-10 logarithms to compute ratios, the neper uses base e
2.71828. The value of a ratio in nepers, Np, is given by

where x1 and x2 are the values of interest, and ln is the natural logarithm.
The neper is often used to express ratios of voltage and current amplitudes in
electrical circuits (or pressure in acoustics), whereas the decibel is used to express
power ratios. One kind of ratio may be converted into the other. Considering that
wave power is proportional to the square of the amplitude, we have

and

The decibel and the neper have a fixed ratio to each other. The (voltage) level is

Like the decibel, the neper is a dimensionless unit. The ITU recognizes both units.

2. Decibel
The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit of measurement that expresses the
magnitude of a physical quantity (usually power or intensity) relative to a specified
or implied reference level. Since it expresses a ratio of two quantities with the
same unit, it is a dimensionless unit. A decibel is one tenth of a bel, a seldom-used
unit.
The decibel is widely known as a measure of sound pressure level, but is also used
for a wide variety of other measurements in science and engineering (particularly
acoustics, electronics, and control theory) and other disciplines. It confers a
number of advantages, such as the ability to conveniently represent very large or
small numbers, a logarithmic scaling that roughly corresponds to the human
perception of sound and light, and the ability to carry out multiplication of ratios
by simple addition and subtraction.
The decibel symbol is often qualified with a suffix, which indicates which
reference quantity or frequency weighting function has been used. For example,

"dBm" indicates that the reference quantity is one milliwatt, while "dBu" is
[1]
referenced to 0.775 volts RMS.
The definitions of the decibel and bel use base-10 logarithms. For a similar unit
using natural logarithms to base e, see neper.

Definitions
A decibel is one-tenth of a bel, i.e. 1 B=10 dB. The bel (B) is the logarithm of
the ratio of two power quantities of 10:1, and for two field quantities in the
[8 ]
ratio . A field quantity is a quantity such as voltage, current, sound pressure,
electric field strength, velocity and charge density, the square of which in
linear systems is proportional to power. A power quantity is a power or a
quantity directly proportional to power, e.g. energy density, acoustic intensity and
luminous intensity.
The calculation of the ratio in decibels varies depending on whether the quantity
being measured is a power quantity or a field quantity.
Power quantities
When referring to measurements of power or intensity, a ratio can be expressed
in decibels by evaluating ten times the base-10 logarithm of the ratio of the
measured quantity to the reference level. Thus, if L represents the ratio of a power
value P1 to another power value P0, then LdB represents that ratio expressed in
decibels and is calculated using the formula:

P1 and P0 must have the same dimension, i.e. they must measure the same type of
quantity, and the same units before calculating the ratio: however, the choice of
scale for this common unit is irrelevant, as it changes both quantities by the same
factor, and thus cancels in the ratiothe ratio of two quantities is scale-invariant.
Note that if P1 = P0 in the above equation, then Ld B = 0. If P1 is greater than P0 then
LdB is positive; if P1 is less than P0 then Ld B is negative.

Rearranging the above equation gives the following formula for P1 in terms of P0
and LdB:
.
Since a bel is equal to ten decibels, the corresponding formulae for measurement in
bels (LB) are

.
Field quantities
When referring to measurements of field amplitude it is usual to consider the ratio
of the squares of A1 (measured amplitude) and A0 (reference amplitude). This is
because in most applications power is proportional to the square of amplitude, and
it is desirable for the two decibel formulations to give the same result in such
typical cases. Thus the following definition is used:

This formula is sometimes called the 20 log rule, and similarly the formula
[citation needed]
for ratios of powers is the 10 log rule, and similarly for other factors.
The
equivalence of
logarithms.

and

is of the standard properties of

The formula may be rearranged to give

Similarly, in electrical circuits, dissipated power is typically proportional to the

square of voltage or current when the impedance is held constant. Taking voltage
as an example, this leads to the equation:

where V1 is the voltage being measured, V0 is a specified reference voltage, and

GdB is the power gain expressed in decibels. A similar formula holds for current.

An example scale showing x and 10 log x. It is easier to grasp and compare 2 or 3

digit numbers than to compare up to 10 digits.
Note that all of these examples yield dimensionless answers in dB because they are
relative ratios expressed in decibels.

To calculate the ratio of 1 kW (one kilowatt, or 1000 watts) to 1 W in

decibels, use the formula

To calculate the ratio of

formula

to

in decibels, use the

Notice that
, illustrating the consequence from the
definitions above that GdB has the same value,
, regardless of whether it is
obtained with the 10-log or 20-log rules; provided that in the specific system
being considered power ratios are equal to amplitude ratios squared.

To calculate the ratio of 1 mW (one milliwatt) to 10 W in decibels, use the

formula

To find the power ratio corresponding to a 3 dB change in level, use the

formula

A change in power ratio by a factor of 10 is a 10 dB change. A change in power

ratio by a factor of two is approximately a 3 dB change. More precisely, the
3/10
factor is 10 , or 1.9953, about 0.24% different from exactly 2. Similarly, an
increase of 3 dB implies an increase in voltage by a factor of approximately ,
or
about 1.41,
an increase of 6 dB corresponds to approximately four times the power and
6/10
twice the voltage, and so on. In exact terms the power ratio is 10 , or about
3.9811, a
relative error of about 0.5%.
Merits
The use of the decibel has a number of merits:

The decibel's logarithmic nature means that a very large range of ratios can
be represented by a convenient number, in a similar manner to scientific
notation. This allows one to clearly visualize huge changes of some quantity.
(See Bode Plot and half logarithm graph.)

The mathematical properties of logarithms mean that the overall decibel gain
of a multi-component system (such as consecutive amplifiers) can be
calculated simply by summing the decibel gains of the individual
components, rather than needing to multiply amplification factors.
Essentially this is because log(A B C ...) = log(A) + log(B) + log(C) +
...
The human perception of, for example, sound or light, is, roughly speaking,
such that a doubling of actual intensity causes perceived intensity to always
increase by the same amount, irrespective of the original level. The decibel's
logarithmic scale, in which a doubling of power or intensity always causes
an increase of approximately 3 dB, corresponds to this perception.

Absolute and relative decibel measurements

Although decibel measurements are always relative to a reference level, if the
numerical value of that reference is explicitly and exactly stated, then the decibel
measurement is called an "absolute" measurement, in the sense that the exact value
of the measured quantity can be recovered using the formula given earlier. For
example, since dBm indicates power measurement relative to 1 milliwatt,

0 dBm means no change from 1 mW. Thus, 0 dBm is the power level
corresponding to a power of exactly 1 mW.
3 dBm means 3 dB greater than 0 dBm. Thus, 3 dBm is the power level
3/10
corresponding to 10 1 mW, or approximately 2 mW.
6 dBm means 6 dB less than 0 dBm. Thus, 6 dBm is the power level
6/10
corresponding to 10
1 mW, or approximately 250 W (0.25 mW).

If the numerical value of the reference is not explicitly stated, as in the dB gain of
an amplifier, then the decibel measurement is purely relative. The practice of
attaching a suffix to the basic dB unit, forming compound units such as dBm, dBu,
[10]
dBA, etc, is not permitted by SI. However, outside of documents adhering to SI
units, the practice is very common as illustrated by the following examples.
Absolute measurements
Electric power
dBm or dBmW
dB(1 mW) power measurement relative to 1 milliwatt. XdBm = XdBW + 30.

dBW
dB(1 W) similar to dBm, except the reference level is 1 watt. 0 dBW =
+30 dBm; 30 dBW = 0 dBm; XdBW = XdBm 30.
Voltage
Since the decibel is defined with respect to power, not amplitude, conversions of
voltage ratios to decibels must square the amplitude, as discussed above.

A schematic showing the relationship between dBu (the voltage source) and dBm
(the power dissipated as heat by the 600 resistor)
dBV
dB(1 VRMS) voltage relative to 1 volt, regardless of impedance.

[1]

dBu or dBv
dB(0.775 VRMS) voltage relative to 0.775 volts.[1] Originally dBv, it was
changed to dBu to avoid confusion with dBV. [11] The "v" comes from "volt",
while "u" comes from "unloaded". dBu can be used regardless of impedance,
but is derived from a 600 load dissipating 0 dBm (1 mW). Reference
voltage
dBmV
[12]

dB(1 mVRMS) voltage relative to 1 millivolt across 75 . Widely used

in cable television networks, where the nominal strength of a single TV
signal at the receiver terminals is about 0 dBmV. Cable TV uses 75
coaxial cable, so 0 dBmV corresponds to 78.75 dBW (-48.75 dBm) or ~13
nW.

dBV or dBuV
dB(1 VRMS) voltage relative to 1 microvolt. Widely used in television
and aerial amplifier specifications. 60 dBV = 0 dBmV.

3. Properties of Symmetrical Networks and

Symmetrical Networks

Characteristic impedance of

A two-port network (a kind of four-terminal network or quadripole) is an electrical

circuit or device with two pairs of terminals connected together internally by an
electrical network. Two terminals constitute a port if they satisfy the essential
requirement known as the port condition: the same current must enter and leave a
port. Examples include small-signal models for transistors (such as the hybrid-pi
model), filters and matching networks. The analysis of passive two-port networks
[3]
is an outgrowth of reciprocity theorems first derived by Lorentz .
A two-port network makes possible the isolation of either a complete circuit or part
of it and replacing it by its characteristic parameters. Once this is done, the isolated
part of the circuit becomes a "black box" with a set of distinctive properties,
enabling us to abstract away its specific physical buildup, thus simplifying
analysis. Any linear circuit with four terminals can be transformed into a two-port
network provided that it does not contain an independent source and satisfies the
port conditions.
There are a number of alternative sets of parameters that can be used to describe a
linear two-port network, the usual sets are respectively called z, y, h, g, and ABCD
parameters, each described individually below. These are all limited to linear
networks since an underlying assumption of their derivation is that any given
circuit condition is a linear superposition of various short-circuit and open circuit
conditions. They are usually expressed in matrix notation, and they establish
relations between the variables
Input voltage
Output voltage
Input current
Output current

These current and voltage variables are most useful at low-to-moderate

frequencies. At high frequencies (e.g., microwave frequencies), the use of power
and energy variables is more appropriate, and the two-port currentvoltage
approach is replaced by an approach based upon scattering parameters.
The terms four-terminal network and quadripole (not to be confused with
quadrupole) are also used, the latter particularly in more mathematical treatments
although the term is becoming archaic. However, a pair of terminals can be called
a port only if the current entering one terminal is equal to the current leaving the
other; this definition is called the port condition. A four-terminal network can only
be properly called a two-port when the terminals are connected to the external
circuitry in two pairs both meeting the port condition.
4. voltage and current ratios
In order to simplify calculations, sinusoidal voltage and waves are
[7][8]
current commonly represented as complex-valued functions of time and .
denoted as

Impedance is defined as the ratio of these quantities.

Substituting these into Ohm's law we have

Noting that this must hold for all t, we may equate the magnitudes and phases to
obtain

The magnitude equation is the familiar Ohm's law applied to the voltage and
current amplitudes, while the second equation defines the phase relationship.
Validity of complex representation
This representation using complex exponentials may be justified by noting that (by
Euler's formula):

i.e. a real-valued sinusoidal function (which may represent our voltage or current
waveform) may be broken into two complex-valued functions. By the principle of
superposition, we may analyse the behaviour of the sinusoid on the left-hand side
by analysing the behaviour of the two complex terms on the right-hand side. Given
the symmetry, we only need to perform the analysis for one right-hand term; the
results will be identical for the other. At the end of any calculation, we may return
to real-valued sinusoids by further noting that

In other words, we simply take the real part of the result.

Phasors
A phasor is a constant complex number, usually expressed in exponential
form, representing the complex amplitude (magnitude and phase) of a sinusoidal
function of time. Phasors are used by electrical engineers to simplify
computations involving sinusoids, where they can often reduce a differential
equation problem to an algebraic one.
The impedance of a circuit element can be defined as the ratio of the phasor
voltage across the element to the phasor current through the element, as determined
by the relative amplitudes and phases of the voltage and current. This is identical to
the definition from Ohm's law given above, recognising that the factors of
cancel
5. Propagation constant
The propagation constant of an electromagnetic wave is a measure of the change
undergone by the amplitude of the wave as it propagates in a given direction. The

quantity being measured can be the voltage or current in a circuit or a field vector
such as electric field strength or flux density. The propagation constant itself
measures change per metre but is otherwise dimensionless.
The propagation constant is expressed logarithmically, almost universally to the
base e, rather than the more usual base 10 used in telecommunications in other
situations. The quantity measured, such as voltage, is expressed as a sinusiodal
phasor. The phase of the sinusoid varies with distance which results in the
propagation constant being a complex number, the imaginary part being caused by
the phase change.
Alternative names
The term propagation constant is somewhat of a misnomer as it usually varies
strongly with . It is probably the most widely used term but there are a large
variety of alternative names used by various authors for this quantity. These
include, transmission parameter, transmission function, propagation parameter,
propagation coefficient and transmission constant. In plural, it is usually implied
that and are being referenced separately but collectively as in transmission
parameters, propagation parameters, propagation coefficients, transmission
constants and secondary coefficients. This last occurs in transmission line theory,
the term secondary being used to contrast to the primary line coefficients. The
primary coefficients being the physical properties of the line; R,C,L and G, from
which the secondary coefficients may be derived using the telegrapher's equation.
Note that, at least in the field of transmission lines, the term transmission
coefficient has a different meaning despite the similarity of name. Here it is the
corollary of reflection coefficient.
Definition
The propagation constant, symbol , for a given system is defined by the ratio of
the amplitude at the source of the wave to the amplitude at some distance x, such
that,

Since the propagation constant is a complex quantity we can write;

where
, the real part, is called the attenuation constant
, the imaginary part, is called the phase constant
That does indeed represent phase can be seen from Euler's formula;

which is a sinusoid which varies in phase as varies but does not vary in amplitude
because;

The reason for the use of base e is also now made clear. The imaginary phase
constant, i, can be added directly to the attenuation constant, , to form a single
complex number that can be handled in one mathematical operation provided they
are to the same base. Angles measured in radians require base e, so the attenuation
is likewise in base e.
For a copper transmission line, the propagation constant can be calculated from the
primary line coefficients by means of the relationship;

where;
, the series impedance of the line per metre and,
, the shunt admittance of the line per metre.
Attenuation constant
In telecommunications, the term attenuation constant, also called attenuation
parameter or coefficient, is the attenuation of an electromagnetic wave propagating
through a medium per unit distance from the source. It is the real part of the
propagation constant and is measured in nepers per metre. A neper is
approximately 8.7dB. Attenuation constant can be defined by the amplitude ratio;

The propagation constant per unit length is defined as the natural logarithmic of
ratio of the sending end current or voltage to the receiving end current or voltage.

Copper lines
The attenuation constant for copper (or any other conductor) lines can be
calculated from the primary line coefficients as shown above. For a line meeting
the distortionless condition, with a conductance G in the insulator, the attenuation
constant is given by;

however, a real line is unlikely to meet this condition without the addition of
loading coils and, furthermore, there are some decidedly non-linear effects
operating on the primary "constants" which cause a frequency dependence of the
loss. There are two main components to these losses, the metal loss and the
dielectric loss.
The loss of most transmission lines are dominated by the metal loss, which causes
a frequency dependency due to finite conductivity of metals, and the skin effect
inside a conductor. The skin effect causes R along the conductor to be
approximately dependent on frequency according to;

Losses in the dielectric depend on the loss tangent (tan) of the material, which
depends inversely on the wavelength of the signal and is directly proportional to
the frequency.

Optical fibre

The attenuation constant for a particular propagation mode in an optical fiber, the
real part of the axial propagation constant.
Phase constant
In electromagnetic theory, the phase constant, also called phase change constant,
parameter or coefficient is the imaginary component of the propagation constant
for a plane wave. It represents the change in phase per metre along the path
travelled by the wave at any instant and is equal to the angular wavenumber of the
wave. It is represented by the symbol and is measured in units of radians per
metre.
From the definition of angular wavenumber;

This quantity is often (strictly speaking incorrectly) abbreviated to wavenumber.

Properly, wavenumber is given by,

which differs from angular wavenumber only by a constant multiple of 2, in the

same way that angular frequency differs from frequency.
For a transmission line, the Heaviside condition of the telegrapher's equation tells
us that the wavenumber must be proportional to frequency for the transmission of
the wave to be undistorted in the time domain. This includes, but is not limited to,
the ideal case of a lossless line. The reason for this condition can be seen by
considering that a useful signal is composed of many different wavelengths in the
frequency domain. For there to be no distortion of the waveform, all these waves
must travel at the same velocity so that they arrive at the far end of the line at the
same time as a group. Since wave phase velocity is given by;

it is proved that is required to be proportional to . In terms of primary

coefficients of the line, this yields from the telegrapher's equation for a
distortionless line the condition;

However, practical lines can only be expected to approximately meet this condition
over a limited frequency band.
6. Filters
The term propagation constant or propagation function is applied to filters
and other two-port networks used for signal processing. In these cases,
however, the attenuation and phase coefficients are expressed in terms of nepers
and radians per network section rather than per metre. Some authors make a
distinction between per metre measures (for which "constant" is used) and per
section measures (for which "function" is used).
The propagation constant is a useful concept in filter design which invariably uses
a cascaded section topology. In a cascaded topology, the propagation constant,
attenuation constant and phase constant of individual sections may be
simply added to find the total propagation constant etc.
Cascaded networks

Three networks with arbitrary propagation constants and impedances connected

in cascade. The Zi terms represent image impedance and it is assumed
that connections are between matching image impedances.
The ratio of output to input voltage for each network is given by,

The terms
are impedance scaling terms
image impedance article.

[3]

and their use is explained in the

The overall voltage ratio is given by,

Thus for n cascaded sections all having matching impedances facing each other,
the overall propagation constant is given by,

7. Filter fundamentals Pass and Stop bands.

filters of all types are required in a variety of applications from audio to RF and
across the whole spectrum of frequencies. As such RF filters form an
important element within a variety of scenarios, enabling the required
frequencies to be passed through the circuit, while rejecting those that are not
needed.
The ideal filter, whether it is a low pass, high pass, or band pass filter will exhibit
no loss within the pass band, i.e. the frequencies below the cut off frequency.
Then above this frequency in what is termed the stop band the filter will
reject all signals.
In reality it is not possible to achieve the perfect pass filter and there is
always some loss within the pass band, and it is not possible to achieve infinite
rejection in the stop band. Also there is a transition between the pass band and
the stop band,

where the response curve falls away, with the level of rejection rises as the
frequency moves from the pass band to the stop band.

Basic types of RF filter

There are four types of filter that can be defined. Each different type rejects
or accepts signals in a different way, and by using the correct type of RF filter
it is possible to accept the required signals and reject those that are not wanted.
The four basic types of RF filter are:

Low pass filter

High pass filter
Band pass filter
Band reject filter

As the names of these types of RF filter indicate, a low pass filter only
allows frequencies below what is termed the cut off frequency through. This can
also be thought of as a high reject filter as it rejects high frequencies. Similarly a
high pass filter only allows signals through above the cut off frequency and
rejects those below the cut off frequency. A band pass filter allows frequencies
through within a given pass band. Finally the band reject filter rejects signals
within a certain band. It can be particularly useful for rejecting a particular
unwanted signal or set of signals falling within a given bandwidth.

filter frequencies
A filter allows signals through in what is termed the pass band. This is the band of
frequencies below the cut off frequency for the filter.
The cut off frequency of the filter is defined as the point at which the output
level from the filter falls to 50% (-3 dB) of the in band level, assuming a constant
input level. The cut off frequency is sometimes referred to as the half power or
-3 dB frequency.
The stop band of the filter is essentially the band of frequencies that is rejected
by the filter. It is taken as starting at the point where the filter reaches its
required level of rejection.

Filter classifications
Filters can be designed to meet a variety of requirements. Although using the
same basic circuit configurations, the circuit values differ when the circuit is
designed to meet different criteria. In band ripple, fastest transition to the
ultimate roll off, highest out of band rejection are some of the criteria that result
in different circuit values. These different filters are given names, each one
being optimised for a different element of performance. Three common types of
filter are given below:

Butterworth: This type of filter provides the maximum in band flatness.

Bessel: This filter provides the optimum in-band phase response and
therefore also provides the best step response.
Chebychev: This filter provides fast roll off after the cut off frequency
is reached. However this is at the expense of in band ripple. The more in
band ripple that can be tolerated, the faster the roll off.
Elliptical: This has significant levels of in band and out of band ripple,
and as expected the higher the degree of ripple that can be tolerated, the
steeper it reaches its ultimate roll off.

Summary
RF filters are widely used in RF design and in all manner of RF and analogue
circuits in general. As they allow though only particular frequencies or bands
of frequencies, they are an essential tool for the RF design engineer.

8. Constant k filter
Constant k filters, also k-type filters, are a type of electronic filter designed
using the image method. They are the original and simplest filters produced
by this methodology and consist of a ladder network of identical sections of
passive components. Historically, they are the first filters that could approach
the ideal filter frequency response to within any prescribed limit with the
addition of a sufficient number of sections. However, they are rarely considered
for a modern design, the principles behind them having been superseded by other
methodologies which are more accurate in their prediction of filter response.
Terminology
Some of the impedance terms and section terms used in this article are pictured
in the diagram below. Image theory defines quantities in terms of an infinite
cascade of two-port sections, and in the case of the filters being discussed,
an infinite ladder network of L-sections. Here "L" should not be confused with the
inductance L in electronic filter topology, "L" refers to the specific filter
shape which resembles inverted letter "L".

The sections of the hypothetical infinite filter are made of series elements
having impedance 2Z and shunt elements with admittance 2Y. The factor of
two is introduced for mathematical convenience, since it is usual to work in terms
of half-

sections where it disappears. The image impedance of the input and output port of
a section will generally not be the same. However, for a mid-series section (that is,
a section from halfway through a series element to halfway through the next series
element) will have the same image impedance on both ports due to symmetry. This
image impedance is designated ZiT due to the "T" topology of a mid-series section.
Likewise, the image impedance of a mid-shunt section is designated Zi due to the
"" topology. Half of such a "T" or "" section is called a half-section, which is
also an L-section but with half the element values of the full L-section. The image
impedance of the half-section is dissimilar on the input and output ports: on the
side presenting the series element it is equal to the mid-series ZiT, but on the side
presenting the shunt element it is equal to the mid-shunt Zi . There are thus two
variant ways of using a half-section.
Derivation

Constant k low-pass filter half section. Here inductance L is equal Ck

Constant
k
2
2
L1 = C2k and L2 = C1k

band-pass

filter

half

section.

Image impedance ZiT of a constant k prototype low-pass filter is plotted

vs. frequency . The impedance is purely resistive (real) below
, and purely
c
reactive (imaginary) cabove .
The building block of constant k filters is the half-section "L" network,
composed of a series impedance Z, and a shunt admittance Y. The "k" in
[6]
"constant k" is the value given by,

Thus, k will have units of impedance, that is, ohms. It is readily apparent that in
order for k to be constant, Y must be the dual impedance of Z. A physical
interpretation of k can be given by observing that k is the limiting value of Zi as the
size of the section (in terms of values of its components, such as inductances,
capacitances, etc.) approaches zero, while keeping k at its initial value. Thus, k is
the characteristic impedance, Z0, of the transmission line that would be formed by
these infinitesimally small sections. It is also the image impedance of the section at
resonance, in the case of band-pass filters, or at = 0 in the case of low-pass
[7]
filters. For example, the pictured low-pass half-section has

Elements L and C can be made arbitrarily small while retaining the same value of
k. Z and Y however, are both approaching zero, and from the formulae (below) for
image impedances,
.
Image impedance
The image impedances of the section are given by

[8]

and

Provided that the filter does not contain any resistive elements, the image
impedance in the pass band of the filter is purely real and in the stop band it is
[9]
purely imaginary. For example, for the pictured low-pass half-section,

The transition occurs at a cut-off frequency given by

Below this frequency, the image impedance is real,

Above the cut-off frequency the image impedance is imaginary,

Transmission parameters

The transfer function of a constant k prototype low-pass filter for a single halfsection showing attenuation in nepers and phase change in radians.
See also: Image impedance#Transfer function
The transmission parameters for a general constant k half-section are given by

[10]

and for a chain of n half-sections

For the low-pass L-shape section, below the cut-off frequency, the transmission
[8]
parameters are given by

That is, the transmission is lossless in the pass-band with only the phase of the
[8]
signal changing. Above the cut-off frequency, the transmission parameters are:

Prototype transformations

The presented plots of image impedance, attenuation and phase change

correspond to a low-pass prototype filter section. The prototype has a cut-off
frequency of c = 1 rad/s and a nominal impedance k = 1 . This is produced by
a filter half-section with inductance L = 1 henry and capacitance C = 1 farad.
This prototype can be impedance scaled and frequency scaled to the desired
values. The low-pass
prototype can also be transformed into high-pass, band-pass or band-stop types by
[11]
application of suitable frequency transformations.
Cascading sections

Gain response, H() for a chain of n low-pass constant-k filter half-sections.

Several L-shape half-sections may be cascaded to form a composite filter.
Like impedance must always face like in these combinations. There are
therefore two circuits that can be formed with two identical L-shaped halfsections. Where a port of image impedance ZiT faces another ZiT, the section is
called a section. Where Zi faces Zi the section so formed is a T section.
Further additions of half-sections
to either of these section forms a ladder network which may start and end with
[12]
series or shunt elements.
It should be borne in mind that the characteristics of the filter predicted
the image method are only accurate if the section is terminated with
image impedance. This is usually not true of the sections at either end, which
usually terminated with a fixed resistance. The further the section is from
end of the
filter, the more accurate the prediction will become, since the effects of
[13]
terminating impedances are masked by the intervening sections.
9. m-derived filter

by
its
are
the
the

m-derived filters or m-type filters are a type of electronic filter designed using
[1]
the image method. They were invented by Otto Zobel in the early 1920s. This
filter
type was originally intended for use with telephone multiplexing and was
[2]
improvement on the existing an constant k type filter. The main problem
being
addressed was the need to achieve a better match of the filter into the terminating
impedances. In general, all filters designed by the image method fail to give
an exact match, but the m-type filter is a big improvement with suitable choice of
the parameter m. The m-type filter section has a further advantage in that there
is a rapid transition from the cut-off frequency of the pass band to a pole of
attenuation just inside the stop band. Despite these advantages, there is a
drawback with m-type filters; at frequencies past the pole of attenuation, the
response starts to rise again, and m-types have poor stop band rejection. For this
reason, filters designed using m-type sections are often designed as composite
filters with a mixture of ktype and m-type sections and different values of m at different points to get
[3]
the optimum
performance
from
both
types.
Derivation

m-derived series general filter half section.

m-derived

shunt

low-pass

filter

half

section.

The building block of m-derived filters, as with all image impedance filters, is
the "L" network, called a half-section and composed of a series impedance Z,
and a shunt admittance Y. The m-derived filter is a derivative of the constant k
filter. The starting point of the design is the values of Z and Y derived from the
constant k prototype and are given by

where k is the nominal impedance of the filter, or R0. The designer now multiplies
Z and Y by an arbitrary constant m (0 < m < 1). There are two different kinds of
m-derived section; series and shunt. To obtain the m-derived series half section,
the designer determines the impedance that must be added to 1/mY to make the
image impedance ZiT the same as the image impedance of the original constant k
section. From the general formula for image impedance, the additional impedance
[9]
required can be shown to be

To obtain the m-derived shunt half section, an admittance is added to 1/mZ to

make the image impedance Zi the same as the image impedance of the original
[10]
half section. The additional admittance required can be shown to be

The general arrangements of these circuits are shown in the diagrams to the right
along with a specific example of a low pass section.
A consequence of this design is that the m-derived half section will match a k-type
section on one side only. Also, an m-type section of one value of m will not match
another m-type section of another value of m except on the sides which offer the Z i
[11]
of the k-type.
Operating frequency
For the low-pass half section shown, the cut-off frequency of the m-type is the
same as the k-type and is given by

The pole of attenuation occurs at;

From this it is clear that smaller values of m will produce

closer to the cut-off
frequency and hence will have a sharper cut-off. Despite this cut-off, it also
brings the unwanted stop band response of the m-type closer to the cut-off
frequency, making it more difficult for this to be filtered with subsequent sections.
The value of m chosen is usually a compromise between these conflicting
requirements. There is also a practical limit to how small m can be made due to the
inherent resistance of the inductors. This has the effect of causing the pole of
attenuation to be less deep (that is, it is no longer a genuinely infinite pole) and the
slope of cut-off to be less steep. This effect becomes more marked as
is brought
closer to
, and there ceases to be
Image impedance

m-derived prototype shunt low-pass filter ZiTm image impedance for various values
of m. Values below cut-off frequency only shown for clarity.
The following expressions for image impedances are all referenced to the lowpass prototype section. They are scaled to the nominal impedance R0 = 1,
and the frequencies in those expressions are all scaled to the cut-off frequency c
= 1.
Series sections
The image impedances of the series section are given by

[14]

and is the same as that of the constant k section

Shunt sections
The image impedances of the shunt section are given by

and is the same as that of the constant k section

[11]

As with the k-type section, the image impedance of the m-type low-pass section
is purely real below the cut-off frequency and purely imaginary above it. From
the
chart it can be seen that in the passband the closest impedance match to a constant
[14]
pure resistance termination occurs at approximately m = 0.6.
Transmission parameters

m-Derived low-pass filter transfer function for a single half-section

For an m-derived section in general the transmission parameters for a half-section
[14]
are given by

and for n half-sections

For the particular example of the low-pass L section, the transmission parameters
[14]
solve differently in three frequency bands.
For

the transmission is lossless:

For

the transmission parameters are

For

the transmission parameters are

Prototype transformations
The plots shown of image impedance, attenuation and phase change are the plots
of a low-pass prototype filter section. The prototype has a cut-off frequency of c =
1 rad/s and a nominal impedance R0 = 1 . This is produced by a filter half-section
where L = 1 henry and C = 1 farad. This prototype can be impedance scaled and
frequency scaled to the desired values. The low-pass prototype can also be
transformed into high-pass, band-pass or band-stop types by application of suitable
[15]
frequency transformations.
Cascading sections
Several L half-sections may be cascaded to form a composite filter. Like
impedance must always face like in these combinations. There are therefore two
circuits that can be formed with two identical L half-sections. Where ZiT faces ZiT,
the section is called a section. Where Zi faces Zi the section formed is a T
section. Further additions of half-sections to either of these forms a ladder network
[16]
which may start and end with series or shunt elements.

It should be born in mind that the characteristics of the filter predicted by the
image method are only accurate if the section is terminated with its image
impedance. This is usually not true of the sections at either end which are usually
terminated with a fixed resistance. The further the section is from the end of the
filter, the more accurate the prediction will become since the effects of the
terminating impedances are masked by the intervening sections. It is usual to
provide half half-sections at the ends of the filter with m = 0.6 as this value gives
the flattest Zi in the passband and hence the best match in to a resistive
[17]
termination.
10.Crystal filter
A crystal filter is a special form of quartz crystal used in electronics systems, in
particular communications devices. It provides a very precisely defined centre
frequency and very steep bandpass characteristics, that is a very high Q factorfar
higher than can be obtained with conventional lumped circuits.
A crystal filter is very often found in the intermediate frequency (IF) stages of
high-quality radio receivers. Cheaper sets may use ceramic filters (which also
exploit the piezoelectric effect), or tuned LC circuits. The use of a fixed IF stage
frequency allows a crystal filter to be used because it has a very precise fixed
frequency.
The most common use of crystal filters, is at frequencies of 9 MHz or 10.7 MHz to
provide selectivity in communications receivers, or at higher frequencies as a
roofing filter in receivers using up-conversion.
Ceramic filters tend to be used at 10.7 MHz to provide selectivity in broadcast FM
receivers, or at a lower frequency (455 kHz) as the second intermediate frequency
filters in a communication receiver. Ceramic filters at 455 kHz can achieve similar
bandwidths to crystal filters at 10.7 MHz.
UNIT II
TRANSMISSION LINE PARAMETERS
1. INTRODUCTION

1. THE SYMMETRICAL T NETWORK

Fig. 1
The value of ZO (image impedance) for a symmetrical network can be
easily determined. For the symmetrical T network of Fig. 1, terminated in its
image impedance ZO, and if Z1 = Z2 = ZT then from many textbooks:
(2.1)
(2.2)

Under ZO termination, input and output voltage and current are:

(2.3)
If there are n such terminated sections then the input and output voltages and
currents, under ZO terminations are:

Where is the propagation constant for one T section., e can be evaluated as:

General solution of the transmission line:

It is used to find the voltage and current at any points on the transmission
line. Transmission lines behave very oddly at high frequencies. In traditional
(low-frequency) circuit theory, wires connect devices, but have zero resistance.
There is no phase delay across wires; and a short-circuited line always
yields zero resistance.
For high-frequency transmission lines, things behave quite differently.
For instance, short-circuits can actually have an infinite impedance; open-circuits
can behave like short-circuited wires. The impedance of some load (ZL=XL+jYL)
can be transformed at the terminals of the transmission line to an impedance
much different than ZL. The goal of this tutorial is to understand transmission
lines and the reasons for their odd effects.
Let's start by examining a diagram. A sinusoidal voltage source with associated
impedance ZS is attached to a load ZL (which could be an antenna or some
other device - in the circuit diagram we simply view it as an impedance called a
load). The load and the source are connected via a transmission line of length L:

In traditional low-frequency circuit analysis, the transmission line would not

matter. As a result, the current that flows in the circuit would simply be:

However, in the high frequency case, the length L of the transmission line
can significantly affect the results. To determine the current that flows in the
circuit, we would need to know what the input impedance is, Zin, viewed
from the terminals of the transmission line:

The resultant current that flows will simply be:

Since antennas are often high-frequency devices, transmission line effects are
often VERY important. That is, if the length L of the transmission line
significantly alters Zin, then the current into the antenna from the source will
be very small. Consequently, we will not be delivering power properly to the
antenna. The same problems hold true in the receiving mode: a transmission line
can skew impedance of the receiver sufficiently that almost no power is transferred
from the antenna.
Hence, a thorough understanding of antenna theory requires an understanding of
transmission lines. A great antenna can be hooked up to a great receiver, but if it
is done with a length of transmission line at high frequencies, the system will
not work properly.
Examples of common transmission lines include the coaxial cable, the microstrip
line which commonly feeds patch/microstrip antennas, and the two wire line:

.
To understand transmission lines, we'll set up an equivalent circuit to model
and analyze them. To start, we'll take the basic symbol for a transmission line of
length L and divide it into small segments:

Then we'll model each small segment with a small series resistance, series
inductance, shunt conductance, and shunt capcitance:

The parameters in the above figure are defined as follows:

R' - resistance per unit length for the transmission line (Ohms/meter)
L' - inductance per unit length for the tx line (Henries/meter)
G' - conductance per unit length for the tx line (Siemans/meter)
C' - capacitance per unit length for the tx line (Farads/meter)
We will use this model to understand the transmission line. All transmission
lines will be represented via the above circuit diagram. For instance, the
model for coaxial cables will differ from microstrip transmission lines
only by their parameters R', L', G' and C'.
To get an idea of the parameters, R' would represent the d.c. resistance of
one meter of the transmission line. The parameter G' represents the isolation
between the two conductors of the transmission line. C' represents the capacitance
between the two conductors that make up the tx line; L' represents the
inductance for one meter of the tx line. These parameters can be derived for
each transmission line. An example of deriving the paramters for a coaxial cable is
given here.
Assuming the +z-axis is towards the right of the screen, we can establish
a relationship between the voltage and current at the left and right sides of
the terminals for our small section of transmission line:

Using oridinary circuit theory, the relationship between the voltage and current on
the left and right side of the transmission line segment can be derived:

Taking the limit as dz goes to zero, we end up with a set of differential equations
that relates the voltage and current on an infinitesimal section of transmission line:

These equations are known as the telegraphers equations. Manipulation of

these equations in phasor form allow for second order wave equations to be
made for both V and I:

The solution of the above wave-equations will reveal the complex nature
of transmission lines. Using ordinary differential equations theory, the solutions
for the above differential equations are given by:

The solution is the sum of a forward traveling wave (in the +z direction) and
a backward traveling wave (in the -z direction). In the above,
the forward traveling voltage wave,

is the amplitude of

is the amplitude of the backward traveling

voltage wave, is the amplitude of the forward traveling current wave, and
the amplitude of the backward traveling current wave.

is

4. THE INFINITESIMAL LINE

Consider the infinitesimal transmission line. It is recognized immediately that
this line, in the limit may be considered as made up of cascaded
infinitesimal T sections. The distribution of Voltage and Current are shown in
hyperbolic form:
(4.1)

(4.2)

And shown in matrix form:

(4.3)

Where ZL and YL are the series impedance and shunt admittance per unit length of
line respectively.
Where the image impedance of the line is:
(4.4)

And the Propagation constant of the line is:

(4.5)
And s is the distance to the point of observation, measured from the receiving end
of the line.
Equations (4.1) and (4.2) are of the same form as equations (3.13) and (3.14) and
are solutions to the wave equation.
Let us define a set of expressions such that:
(4.6)

(4.7)

Where

Also

note

that:

If we now substitute equations (4.6) and (4.7) into equations (4.4) and (4.5), and
allowing
we have:
And

so by
and then using equations (4.6) and (4.7) to find
,
both Real, Imaginary or Complex, then equations
(4.3) will be equivalent to equation (3.15) and equation (3.16).
choosing

So that the infinitesimal transmission line of distributed parameters, with Z and

Y of the line as found from equations (4.6)and (4.7), a distance S from the
generator, is now electrically equivalent to a line of N individual T sections
whose
.

Quarter wave length

For the case where the length of the line is one quarter wavelength long, or an odd
multiple of a quarter wavelength long, the input impedance becomes

Matched load
Another special case is when the load impedance is equal to the characteristic
impedance of the line (i.e. the line is matched), in which case the impedance
reduces to the characteristic impedance of the line so that

for all l and all .

Short
For the case of a shorted load (i.e. ZL = 0), the input impedance is purely imaginary
and a periodic function of position and wavelength (frequency)

Open
For the case of an open load (i.e.
imaginary and periodic

), the input impedance is once again

Stepped transmission line

A simple example of stepped transmission line consisting of three segments.

Stepped transmission line is used for broad range impedance matching. It can
be considered as multiple transmission line segments connected in serial, with
the characteristic impedance of each individual element to be, Z 0,i. And the
input impedance can be obtained from the successive application of the chain
relation

where i is the wave number of the ith transmission line segment and li is the
length of this segment, and Zi is the front-end impedance that loads the ith
segment.

The impedance transformation circle along a transmission line whose

characteristic impedance Z0,i is smaller than that of the input cable Z0. And
as a result, the impedance curve is off-centered towards the -x axis. Conversely,
if Z0,i > Z0, the impedance curve should be off-centered towards the +x axis.
Because the characteristic impedance of each transmission line segment Z 0,i
is often different from that of the input cable Z0, the impedance transformation
circle is off centered along the x axis of the Smith Chart whose impedance
representation is usually normalized against Z0.
Practical types
Coaxial cable
Coaxial lines confine the electromagnetic wave to the area inside the
cable, between the center conductor and the shield. The transmission of energy in
the line occurs totally through the dielectric inside the cable between the
conductors. Coaxial lines can therefore be bent and twisted (subject to limits)
without negative effects, and they can be strapped to conductive supports
without inducing unwanted currents in them. In radio-frequency applications up
to a few gigahertz, the wave propagates in the transverse electric and magnetic
mode (TEM) only, which means that the electric and magnetic fields are both
perpendicular to the direction of propagation (the electric field is radial, and
the magnetic field is circumferential). However, at frequencies for which
the wavelength (in the dielectric) is significantly shorter than the
circumference of the cable, transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic
(TM) waveguide modes can also propagate.

When more than one mode can exist, bends and other irregularities in the cable
geometry can cause power to be transferred from one mode to another.
The most common use for coaxial cables is for television and other signals with
bandwidth of multiple megahertz. In the middle 20th century they carried long
distance telephone connections.
Microstrip
A microstrip circuit uses a thin flat conductor which is parallel to a ground plane.
Microstrip can be made by having a strip of copper on one side of a printed circuit
board (PCB) or ceramic substrate while the other side is a continuous ground
plane. The width of the strip, the thickness of the insulating layer (PCB or ceramic)
and the dielectric constant of the insulating layer determine the characteristic
impedance. Microstrip is an open structure whereas coaxial cable is a closed
structure.
Stripline
A stripline circuit uses a flat strip of metal which is sandwiched between two
parallel ground planes. The insulating material of the substrate forms a dielectric.
The width of the strip, the thickness of the substrate and the relative permittivity of
the substrate determine the characteristic impedance of the strip which is a
transmission line.
Balanced lines
A balanced line is a transmission line consisting of two conductors of the same
type, and equal impedance to ground and other circuits. There are many formats of
balanced lines, amongst the most common are twisted pair, star quad and twinlead.
Twisted pair
Twisted pairs are commonly used for terrestrial telephone communications. In such
cables, many pairs are grouped together in a single cable, from two to several
thousand. The format is also used for data network distribution inside buildings,
but in this case the cable used is more expensive with much tighter controlled
parameters and either two or four pairs per cable.
Single-wire line

Unbalanced lines were formerly much used for telegraph transmission, but this
form of communication has now fallen into disuse. Cables are similar to twisted
pair in that many cores are bundled into the same cable but only one conductor is
provided per circuit and there is no twisting. All the circuits on the same route use
a common path for the return current (earth return). There is a power transmission
version of single-wire earth return in use in many locations.
Waveguide
Waveguides are rectangular or circular metallic tubes inside which an
electromagnetic wave is propagated and is confined by the tube. Waveguides are
not capable of transmitting the transverse electromagnetic mode found in copper
lines and must use some other mode. Consequently, they cannot be directly
connected to cable and a mechanism for launching the waveguide mode must be
provided at the interface.
Reflection coefficient
The reflection coefficient is used in physics and electrical engineering when wave
propagation in a medium containing discontinuities is considered. A reflection
coefficient describes either the amplitude or the intensity of a reflected wave
relative to an incident wave. The reflection coefficient is closely related to the
transmission coefficient.

Telecommunications
In telecommunications, the reflection coefficient is the ratio of the amplitude of the
reflected wave to the amplitude of the incident wave. In particular, at a
discontinuity in a transmission line, it is the complex ratio of the electric field

+
strength of the reflected wave (E ) to that of the incident wave (E ). This is
typically represented with a (capital gamma) and can be written as:

The reflection coefficient may also be established using other field or circuit
quantities.

The reflection coefficient can be given by the equations below, where ZS is the
impedance toward the source, ZL is the impedance toward the load:

Simple circuit configuration showing measurement location of reflection

coefficient.

Notice that a negative reflection coefficient means that the reflected wave receives
a 180, or , phase shift.
The absolute magnitude (designated by vertical bars) of the reflection coefficient
can be calculated from the standing wave ratio, SWR:

Insertion loss:
Insertion loss is a figure of merit for an electronic filter and this data is generally
specified with a filter. Insertion loss is defined as a ratio of the signal level in a test
configuration without the filter installed (V1) to the signal level with the filter
installed (V2). This ratio is described in dB by the following equation:

Filters are sensitive to source and load impedances so the exact performance of a
filter in a circuit is difficult to precisely predict. Comparisons, however, of filter
performance are possible if the insertion loss measurements are made with fixed

source and load impedances, and 50 is the typical impedance to do this. This
data is specified as common-mode or differential-mode. Common-mode is a
measure of the filter performance on signals that originate between the power lines
and chassis ground, whereas differential-mode is a measure of the filter
performance on signals that originate between the two power lines.
Link with Scattering parameters
Insertion Loss (IL) is defined as follows:

This definition results in a negative value for insertion loss, that is, it is really
defining a gain, and a gain less than unity (i.e., a loss) will be negative when
expressed in dBs. However, it is conventional to drop the minus sign so that an
increasing loss is represented by an increasing positive number as would be
intuitively expected

UNIT III
THE LINE AT RADIO FREQUENCY

There are two main forms of line at high frequency, namely

Open wire line
Coaxial line
At Radio Frequency G may be considered zero
Skin effect is considerable
Due to skin effect L>>R

Coaxial cable is used as a transmission line for radio frequency signals, in

applications such as connecting radio transmitters and receivers with their
antennas, computer network (Internet) connections, and distributing cable
television signals. One advantage of coax over other types of transmission line is
that in an ideal coaxial cable the electromagnetic field carrying the signal exists
only in the space between the inner and outer conductors. This allows coaxial cable
runs to be installed next to metal objects such as gutters without the power losses
that occur in other transmission lines, and provides protection of the signal from
external electromagnetic interference.
Coaxial cable differs from other shielded cable used for carrying lower frequency
signals such as audio signals, in that the dimensions of the cable are controlled to
produce a repeatable and predictable conductor spacing needed to function
efficiently as a radio frequency transmission line.

How it works

Coaxial cable cutaway

Like any electrical power cord, coaxial cable conducts AC electric current
between locations. Like these other cables, it has two conductors, the central
wire and the tubular shield. At any moment the current is traveling outward from
the source in one of the conductors, and returning in the other. However, since it
is alternating current, the current reverses direction many times a second.
Coaxial cable differs from other cable because it is designed to carry radio
frequency current. This has a

frequency much higher than the 50 or 60 Hz used in mains (electric power) cables,
reversing direction millions to billions of times per second. Like other types of
radio transmission line, this requires special construction to prevent power losses:
If an ordinary wire is used to carry high frequency currents, the wire acts as an
antenna, and the high frequency currents radiate off the wire as radio waves,
causing power losses. To prevent this, in coaxial cable one of the conductors is
formed into a tube and encloses the other conductor. This confines the radio waves
from the central conductor to the space inside the tube. To prevent the outer
conductor, or shield, from radiating, it is connected to electrical ground, keeping it
at a constant potential.
The dimensions and spacing of the conductors must be uniform. Any abrupt
change in the spacing of the two conductors along the cable tends to reflect radio
frequency power back toward the source, causing a condition called standing
waves. This acts as a bottleneck, reducing the amount of power reaching the
destination end of the cable. To hold the shield at a uniform distance from the
central conductor, the space between the two is filled with a semirigid plastic
[2]
dielectric. Manufacturers specify a minimum bend radius to prevent kinks that
would cause reflections. The connectors used with coax are designed to hold the
correct spacing through the body of the connector.
Each type of coaxial cable has a characteristic impedance depending on its
dimensions and materials used, which is the ratio of the voltage to the current in
the cable. In order to prevent reflections at the destination end of the cable from
causing standing waves, any equipment the cable is attached to must present an
impedance equal to the characteristic impedance (called 'matching'). Thus the
equipment "appears" electrically similar to a continuation of the cable, preventing
reflections. Common values of characteristic impedance for coaxial cable are 50
and 75 ohms.
Description
Coaxial cable design choices affect physical size, frequency performance,
attenuation, power handling capabilities, flexibility, strength and cost. The inner
conductor might be solid or stranded; stranded is more flexible. To get better highfrequency performance, the inner conductor may be silver plated. Sometimes
copper-plated iron wire is used as an inner conductor.

The insulator surrounding the inner conductor may be solid plastic, a foam plastic,
or may be air with spacers supporting the inner wire. The properties of dielectric
control some electrical properties of the cable. A common choice is a solid
polyethylene (PE) insulator, used in lower-loss cables. Solid Teflon (PTFE) is also
used as an insulator. Some coaxial lines use air (or some other gas) and have
spacers to keep the inner conductor from touching the shield.
Many conventional coaxial cables use braided copper wire forming the shield. This
allows the cable to be flexible, but it also means there are gaps in the shield layer,
and the inner dimension of the shield varies slightly because the braid cannot be
flat. Sometimes the braid is silver plated. For better shield performance, some
cables have a double-layer shield. The shield might be just two braids, but it is
more common now to have a thin foil shield covered by a wire braid. Some cables
may invest in more than two shield layers, such as "quad-shield" which uses four
alternating layers of foil and braid. Other shield designs sacrifice flexibility for
better performance; some shields are a solid metal tube. Those cables cannot take
sharp bends, as the shield will kink, causing losses in the cable.
For high power radio-frequency transmission up to about 1 GHz coaxial cable with
a solid copper outer conductor is available in sizes of 0.25 inch upwards. The outer
conductor is rippled like a bellows to permit flexibility and the inner conductor is
held in position by a plastic spiral to approximate an air dielectric.
Coaxial cables require an internal structure of an insulating (dielectric) material to
maintain the spacing between the center conductor and shield. The dielectric losses
increase in this order: Ideal dielectric (no loss), vacuum, air,
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethylene foam, and solid polyethylene. A low
relative permittivity allows for higher frequency usage. An inhomogeneous
dielectric needs to be compensated by a non-circular conductor to avoid current
hot-spots.
Most cables have a solid dielectric; others have a foam dielectric which contains as
much air as possible to reduce the losses. Foam coax will have about 15% less
attenuation but can absorb moistureespecially at its many surfacesin humid
environments, increasing the loss. Stars or spokes are even better but more
expensive. Still more expensive were the air spaced coaxials used for some intercity communications in the middle 20th Century. The center conductor was
suspended by polyethylene discs every few centimeters. In a miniature coaxial
cable such as an RG-62 type, the inner conductor is supported by a spiral strand of
polyethylene, so that an air space exists between most of the conductor and the

inside of the jacket. The lower dielectric constant of air allows for a greater inner
diameter at the same impedance and a greater outer diameter at the same cutoff
frequency, lowering ohmic losses. Inner conductors are sometimes silver plated to
smooth the surface and reduce losses due to skin effect. A rough surface prolongs
the path for the current and concentrates the current at peaks and thus increases
ohmic losses.
The insulating jacket can be made from many materials. A common choice is PVC,
but some applications may require fire-resistant materials. Outdoor applications
may require the jacket to resist ultraviolet light and oxidation. For internal chassis
connections the insulating jacket may be omitted.
The ends of coaxial cables are usually made with RF connectors.

Open wire transmission lines have the property that the electromagnetic wave
propagating down the line extends into the space surrounding the parallel wires.
These lines have low loss, but also have undesirable characteristics. They cannot
be bent, twisted or otherwise shaped without changing their characteristic
impedance, causing reflection of the signal back toward the source. They also
cannot be run along or attached to anything conductive, as the extended fields will
induce currents in the nearby conductors causing unwanted radiation and detuning
of the line. Coaxial lines solve this problem by confining the electromagnetic wave
to the area inside the cable, between the center conductor and the shield. The
transmission of energy in the line occurs totally through the dielectric inside the
cable between the conductors. Coaxial lines can therefore be bent and moderately
twisted without negative effects, and they can be strapped to conductive supports
without inducing unwanted currents in them. In radio-frequency applications up to
a few gigahertz, the wave propagates primarily in the transverse electric magnetic
(TEM) mode, which means that the electric and magnetic fields are both
perpendicular to the direction of propagation. However, above a certain cutoff
frequency, transverse electric (TE) and/or transverse magnetic (TM) modes can
also propagate, as they do in a waveguide. It is usually undesirable to transmit
signals above the cutoff frequency, since it may cause multiple modes with
different phase velocities to propagate, interfering with each other. The outer
diameter is roughly inversely proportional to the cutoff frequency. A propagating
surface-wave mode that does not involve or require the outer shield but only a
single central conductor also exists in coax but this mode is effectively suppressed
in coax of conventional geometry and common impedance. Electric field lines for

this TM mode have a longitudinal component and require line lengths of a halfwavelength or longer.

Connectors

A coaxial connector (male N-type).

Coaxial connectors are designed to maintain a coaxial form across the connection
and have the same well-defined impedance as the attached cable. Connectors are
often plated with high-conductivity metals such as silver or gold. Due to the
skin effect, the RF signal is only carried by the plating and does not penetrate
to the connector body. Although silver oxidizes quickly, the silver oxide that is
produced is still conductive. While this may pose a cosmetic issue, it does
not degrade performance.
Important parameters
Coaxial cable is a particular kind of transmission line, so the circuit
models developed for general transmission lines are appropriate. See
Telegrapher's equation.

Schematic representation of the elementary components of a transmission line.

Schematic representation of a coaxial transmission line, showing the characteristic

impedance Z0.
Physical parameters

Outside diameter of inner conductor, d.

Inside diameter of the shield, D.
Dielectric constant of the insulator, . The dielectric constant is often quoted
as the relative dielectric constant r referred to the dielectric constant of free
space 0: = r0. When the insulator is a mixture of different dielectric
materials (e.g., polyethylene foam is a mixture of polyethylene and air), then
the term effective dielectric constant eff is often used.
Magnetic permeability of the insulator. Permeability is often quoted as the
relative permeability r referred to the permeability of free space 0: =
r0. The relative permeability will almost always be 1.

Fundamental electrical parameters

Shunt capacitance per unit length, in farads per metre.

Series inductance per unit length, in henrys per metre.

Series resistance per unit length, in ohms per metre. The resistance per unit
length is just the resistance of inner conductor and the shield at low
frequencies. At higher frequencies, skin effect increases the effective
resistance by confining the conduction to a thin layer of each conductor.
Shunt conductance per unit length, in siemens per metre. The shunt
conductance is usually very small because insulators with good dielectric
properties are used (a very low loss tangent). At high frequencies, a
dielectric can have a significant resistive loss.

Derived electrical parameters

Characteristic impedance in ohms (). Neglecting resistance per unit

length for most coaxial cables, the characteristic impedance is determined
from the capacitance per unit length (C) and the inductance per unit length
(L). The
simplified expression is (
). Those parameters are determined
from the ratio of the inner (d) and outer (D) diameters and the dielectric
[3]
constant (). The characteristic impedance is given by

Assuming the dielectric properties of the material inside the cable do

not vary appreciably over the operating range of the cable, this
impedance is frequency independent above about five times the shield
cutoff frequency.
For typical coaxial cables, the shield cutoff frequency is 600 (RG-6A) to
[4]
2,000 Hz (RG-58C).

Attenuation (loss) per unit length, in decibels per meter. This is dependent
on the loss in the dielectric material filling the cable, and resistive losses in
the center conductor and outer shield. These losses are frequency dependent,
the losses becoming higher as the frequency increases. Skin effect losses in

the conductors can be reduced by increasing the diameter of the cable. A

cable with twice the diameter will have half the skin effect resistance.
Ignoring dielectric and other losses, the larger cable would halve the
dB/meter loss. In designing a system, engineers consider not only the loss in
the cable, but also the loss in the connectors.
Velocity of propagation, in meters per second. The velocity of propagation
depends on the dielectric constant and permeability (which is usually 1).

Cutoff frequency is determined by the possibility of exciting other

propagation modes in the coaxial cable. The average circumference of the
insulator is (D + d) / 2. Make that length equal to 1 wavelength in the
dielectric. The TE01 cutoff frequency is therefore

Peak Voltage

Significance of impedance
The best coaxial cable impedances in high-power, high-voltage, and lowattenuation applications were experimentally determined in 1929 at Bell
Laboratories to be 30, 60, and 77 respectively. For an air dielectric coaxial cable
with a diameter of 10 mm the attenuation is lowest at 77 ohms when calculated for
10 GHz. The curve showing the power handling maxima at 30 ohms can be found
here:

Consider the skin effect. The magnitude of an alternating current in a conductor

decays exponentially with distance beneath the surface, with the depth of
penetration being proportional to the square root of the resistivity. This means that
in a shield of finite thickness, some small amount of current will still be flowing on
the opposite surface of the conductor. With a perfect conductor (i.e., zero
resistivity), all of the current would flow at the surface, with no penetration into
and through the conductor. Real cables have a shield made of an imperfect,
although usually very good, conductor, so there will always be some leakage.

The gaps or holes, allow some of the electromagnetic field to penetrate to the other
side. For example, braided shields have many small gaps. The gaps are smaller
when using a foil (solid metal) shield, but there is still a seam running the length of
the cable. Foil becomes increasingly rigid with increasing thickness, so a thin foil
layer is often surrounded by a layer of braided metal, which offers greater
flexibility for a given cross-section.
This type of leakage can also occur at locations of poor contact between connectors
at either end of the cable.
Nodes and Anti nodes :
At any point on the transmission line voltage or current value is zero called nodes.
At any point on the line voltage or current value is maximum called Antinodes
Reflection Coefficient:
The characteristic impedance of a transmission line, and that the tx line
gives rise to forward and backward travelling voltage and current waves. We will
use this information to determine the voltage reflection coefficient, which relates
the amplitude of the forward travelling wave to the amplitude of the backward
travelling wave.
To begin, consider the transmission line with characteristic impedance Z0 attached
to a load with impedance ZL:

At the terminals where the transmission line is connected to the load, the overall
voltage must be given by:

[1]

Recall the expressions for the voltage and current on the line (derived on the
previous page):

If we plug this into equation [1] (note that z is fixed, because we are evaluating this
at a specific point, the end of the transmission line), we obtain:

The ratio of the reflected voltage amplitude to that of the forward

voltage amplitude is the voltage reflection coefficient. This can be solved for via
the above equation:

The reflection coefficient is usually denoted by the symbol gamma. Note that
the magnitude of the reflection coefficient does not depend on the length of the
line, only the load impedance and the impedance of the transmission line. Also,
note that if ZL=Z0, then the line is "matched". In this case, there is no
mismatch loss and all power is transferred to the load. At this point, you
should begin to understand the importance of impedance matching:
grossly mismatched impedances will lead to most of the power reflected away
from the load.
Note that the reflection coefficient can be a real or a complex number.
Standing Waves
We'll now look at standing waves on the transmission line. Assuming
the propagation constant is purely imaginary (lossless line), We can re-write
the voltage and current waves as:

If we plot the voltage along the transmission line, we observe a series of peaks
and minimums, which repeat a full cycle every half-wavelength. If gamma
equals 0.5 (purely real), then the magnitude of the voltage would appear as:

Similarly, if gamma equals zero (no mismatch loss) the magnitude of the voltage
would appear as:

Finally, if gamma has a magnitude of 1 (this occurs, for instance, if the load
is entirely reactive while the transmission line has a Z0 that is real), then
the magnitude of the voltage would appear as:

One thing that becomes obvious is that the ratio of Vmax to Vmin becomes
larger as the reflection coefficient increases. That is, if the ratio of Vmax to Vmin
is one, then there are no standing waves, and the impedance of the line is
perfectly matched to the load. If the ratio of Vmax to Vmin is infinite, then the
magnitude of the reflection coefficient is 1, so that all power is reflected.
Hence, this ratio, known as the Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) or
standing wave ratio is a measure of how well matched a transmission line is to a
load. It is defined as:

Input impedance of a transmission line:

Determine the input impedance of a transmission line of length L attached to a
load (antenna) with impedance ZA. Consider the following circuit:

In low frequency circuit theory, the input impedance would simply be

ZA. However, for high-frequency (or long) transmission lines, we know
that the voltage and the current are given by:

For simplicity, assume the transmission line is lossless, so that the

propagation constant is purely imaginary. If we define z=0 to be at the terminals
of the load or antenna, then we are interested in the ratio of the voltage to the
current at location z=-L:

Using the definition for gamma (the voltage reflection coefficient), the above
equation can be manipulated algebraically, and when evaluated at z=-L, we obtain:

This last equation is fundamnetal to understanding transmission lines. The

input impedance of a load ZA is transformed by a transmission line as in the
above equation. This equation can cause ZA to be transformed radically. An
example will now be presented.
Example
Consider a voltage source, with generator impedance Zg, hooked to an
antenna with impedance ZA via a transmission line. Suppose that Zg=50
Ohms, ZA=50 Ohms, Z0=200 Ohm, and that the line is a quarterwavelength
long. How much power does the generator deliver?
Answer: The diagram for this problem is given in the following diagram:

The above diagram also shows the "equivalent circuit". The input impedance
becomes:

Hence, the current that flows is given by:

Note that if high frequency circuit theory was not taken into account, the current
flow would have been V/100 Amps. This illustrates how transmission lines
can upset the expected operation of high frequency circuits.
Quarter-Wave Transformer
Recall our formula for the input impedance of a transmission line of length L with
characteristic impedance Z0 and connected to a load with impedance ZA:

An interesting thing happens when the length of the line is a quarter of a

wavelength:

The above equation is important: it states that by using a quarter-wavelength

of transmission line, the impedance of the load (ZA) can be transformed via the
above equation. The utility of this operation can be seen via an example.
Example. Match a load with impedance ZA=100 Ohms to be 50 Ohms using a
quarter-wave transformer, as shown below.

Solution: The problem is to determine Z0 (the characteristic impedance of

our quarter-wavelength transmission line) such that the 100 Ohm load is matched
to 50 Ohms. By applying the above equation, the problem is simple:

Hence, by using a transmission line with a characteristic impedance of

70.71 Ohms, the 100 Ohm load is matched to 50 Ohms. Hence, if a transmitter
has an impedance of 50 Ohms and is trying to deliver power to the load
(antenna), no power will be reflected back to the transmitter. In general,
impedance matching is very important in RF/microwave circuit design. It is
relatively simple at a single frequency, but becomes very difficult if wideband
impedance matching is desired.
This technique is commonly employed with patch antennas. Circuits are printed
as shown in the following figure. A 50 Ohm microstrip transmission line is
matched to a patch antenna (impedance typically 200 Ohms or more) via a
quarter-wavelength microstrip transmission line with the characteristic
impedance chosen to match the load.

Because the quarter-wavelength transmission line is only a quarter-wavelength at

a single frequency, this is a narrow-band matching technique. In the next
section, we'll look at more uses of transmission lines.

Stub
In microwave and radio-frequency engineering, a stub is a length of
line or waveguide that is connected at one end only. The free end of the stub is
either left open-circuit or (especially in the case of waveguides) short-circuited.
Neglecting transmission line losses, the input impedance of the stub is purely
reactive; either capacitive or inductive, depending on the electrical length of the

stub, and on whether it is open or short circuit. Stubs may thus be considered to be
frequency-dependent capacitors and frequency-dependent inductors.
Because stubs take on reactive properties as a function of their electrical length,
stubs are most common in UHF or microwave circuits where the line lengths are
more manageable. Stubs are commonly used in antenna impedance matching
circuits and frequency selective filters.
Smith charts can also be used to determine what length line to use to obtain a
desired reactance.

Short circuited stub

The input impedance of a lossless short circuited line is,

where j is the imaginary unit, Z0 is the characteristic impedance of the line, is the
phase constant of the line, and l is the physical length of the line.
Thus, depending on whether tan(l) is positive or negative, the stub will be
inductive or capacitive, respectively.
The Length of a stub to act as a capacitor C at an angular frequency of is then
given by:

The length of a stub to act as an inductor L at the same frequency is given by:

Open circuited stub

The input impedance of a lossless open circuit stub is given by

It follows that whether cot(l) is positive or negative, the stub will be capacitive or
inductive, respectively.
The length of an open circuit stub to act as an Inductor L at an angular frequency
of is:

The length of an open circuit stub to act as a capacitor C at the same frequency is:

Stub matching

In a stripline circuit, a stub may be placed just before an output connector

to compensate for small mismatches due to the device's output load or the
connector itself.
Stubs can be used to match a load impedance to the transmission line characteristic
impedance. The stub is positioned a distance from the load. This distance is chosen
so that at that point the resistive part of the load impedance is made equal to the
resistive part of the characteristic impedance by impedance transformer action of
the length of the main line. The length of the stub is chosen so that it exactly
cancels the reactive part of the presented impedance. That is, the stub is made
capacitive or inductive according to whether the main line is presenting an
inductive or capacitive impedance respectively. This is not the same as the actual
impedance of the load since the reactive part of the load impedance will be subject
to impedance transformer action as well as the resistive part. Matching stubs can
be made adjustable so that matching can be corrected on test.

single stub will only achieve a perfect match at one specific frequency. For
wideband matching several stubs may be used spaced along the main
transmission line. The resulting structure is filter-like and filter design
techniques are applied. For instance, the matching network may be
designed as a Chebyshev filter but is optimised for impedance matching
instead of passband transmission. The resulting transmission function of
the network has a passband ripple like the Chebyshev filter, but the ripples
never reach 0dB insertion loss at any point in the passband, as they would
do for the standard filter.

Single stub impedance matching:

The load should be matched to the characteristic impedance of the line so

that as much power as possible is transmitted from the generator to the load for
radio-frequency power transmission.

The lines should be matched because reflections from mismatched loads and
junctions will result in echoes and will distort the information-carrying signal for
information transmission.

Short-circuited (instead of open-circuited) stubs are used for impedancematching on transmission lines.

Single-stub method for impedance matching : an arbitrary load impedance

can be matched to a transmission line by placing a single short-circuited stub in
parallel with the line at a suitable location (Fig.8-12).

Y0 = 1/ R0 .

: the input admittance at BB

looking toward the load without the

stub.

Our impedance- (or admittance-) matching problem : to determine the

location d and the length of the stub such
that

WhereYo=1/Ro

In terms of normalized admittance, the above equation

becomes

Ys purely imaginary (the input admittance of a short-circuited stub is

purely susceptive).

Thus, the above equation can be satisfied only

if

and

where bB can be either positive or negative.

Our objectives : (1) to find the length d such that the admittance YB of the
load section looking to the right of terminal BB has a unitary real part, and
(2) to find the length of the stub required to cancel the imaginary part.

Smith Chart:
The Smith Chart is a fantastic tool for visualizing the impedance of a
transmission line and antenna system as a function of frequency. Smith Charts
can be used to increase understanding of transmission lines and how they
behave from an impedance viewpoint. Smith Charts are also extremely
helpful for impedance matching, as we will see. The Smith Chart is used to
display a real antenna's impedance when measured on a Vector Network
Analyzer (VNA).
Smith Charts were originally developed around 1940 by Phillip Smith as a useful
tool for making the equations involved in transmission lines easier to
manipulate. See, for instance, the input impedance equation for a load
attached to a transmission line of length L and characteristic impedance
Z0. With modern computers, the Smith Chart is no longer used to the
simplify the calculation of transmission line equatons; however, their value in
visualizing the impedance of an antenna or a transmission line has not decreased.
The Smith Chart is shown in Figure 1. A larger version is shown here.

Figure 1. The basic Smith Chart.

Figure 1 should look a little intimidating, as it appears to be lines going
everywhere. There is nothing to fear though. We will build up the Smith
Chart from scratch, so that you can understand exactly what all of the lines mean.
In fact, we are going to learn an even more complicated version of the Smith
Chart known as the immitance Smith Chart, which is twice as complicated, but
also twice as useful. But for now, just admire the Smith Chart and its curvy
elegance.
This section of the antenna theory site will present an intro to the Smith Chart
basics.
Smith Chart Tutorial

We'll now begin to explain the Smith Chart. The Smith Chart displays the
complex reflection coefficient, in polar form, for an arbitrary impedance
(we'll call the impedance ZL or the load impedance). For a primer on complex
math, click here.
Recall that the complex reflection coefficient (
) for an impedance ZL attached
to a transmission line with characteristic impedance Z0 is given by:

[1]
For this tutorial, we will assume Z0 is 50 Ohms, which is often, but not always the
case.
The complex reflection coefficient, or

, must have a magnitude between 0 and

1. As such, the set of all possible values for

must lie within the unit circle:

Figure 2. The Complex Reflection Coefficient must lie somewhere within the unit
circle.
In Figure 2, we are plotting the set of all values for the complex
reflection coefficient, along the real and imaginary axis. The center of the Smith

Chart is the

point where the reflection coefficient is zero. That is, this is the only point on the
smith chart where no power is reflected by the load impedance.
The outter ring of the Smith Chart is where the magnitude of
is equal to 1. This
is the black circle in Figure 1. Along this curve, all of the power is reflected by the
load impedance.
Normalized Load Impedance
To make the Smith Chart more general and independent of the
characteristic impedance Z0 of the transmission line, we will normalize the load
impedance ZL by Z0 for all future plots:

[1]
Equation [1] doesn't affect the reflection coefficient (
that is used everywhere.

). It is just a convention

Constant Resistance Circles

for a given normalized load impedance zL, we can determine
Smith Chart.

and plot it on the

Now, suppose we have the normalized load impedance given by:

[2]
In equation [2], Y is any real number. What would the curve corresponding to
equation [2] look like if we plotted it on the Smith Chart for all values of Y?
That is, if we plotted z1 = 1 + 0*i, and z1 = 1 + 10*i, z1 = 1 - 5*i, z1 = 1 - .
333*i, .... and any possible value for Y that you could think of, what is the
resulting curve? The answer is shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1. Constant Resistance Circle for zL=1 on Smith Chart.

In Figure 1, the outer blue ring represents the boundary of the smith chart.
The black curve is a constant resistance circle: this is where all values of z1 = 1
+ i*Y will lie on. Several points are plotted along this curve, z1 = 1, z1 = 1 + i*2,
and zL = 1 - i*4.
Suppose we want to know what the curve z2 = 0.3 + i*Y looks like on the Smith
Chart. The result is shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2. Constant Resistance Circle for zL=0.3 on Smith Chart.

In Figure 2, the black ring represents the set of all impedances where the real part
of z2 equals 0.3. A few points along the circle are plotted. We've left the
resistance circle of 1.0 in red on the Smith Chart.
These circles are called constant resistance curves. The real part of the
load impedance is constant along each of these curves. We'll now add several
values for the constant resistance, as shown in Figure 3:

Figure 3. Constant Resistance Circles on Smith Chart.

In Figure 3, the zL=0.1 resistance circle has been added in purple. The zL=6
resistance circle has been added in green, and zL=2 resistance circle is in black.
look at the set of curves defined by zL = R + iY, where Y is held constant and
R varies from 0 to infinity. Since R cannot be negative for antennas or
passive devices, we will restrict R to be greater than or equal to zero. As a first
example, let zL = R + i. The curve defined by this set of impedances is shown in
Figure 1:

Figure 1. Constant Reactance Curve for zL = R + i*1.

The resulting curve zL = R + i is plotted in green in Figure 1. A few points along
the curve are illustrated as well. Observe that zL = 0.3 + i is at the intersection
of the Re[zL] = 0.3 circle and the Im[zL]=1 curve. Similarly, observe that the zL
= 2 + i point is at the intersection of the Re[zL]=2 circle and the Im[zL]=1 curve.
(For a quick reminder of real and imaginary parts of complex numbers, see
complex math primer.)
The constant reactance curve, defined by Im[zL]=-1 is shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2. Constant Reactance Curve for zL = R - i.

The resulting curve for Im[zL]=-1 is plotted in green in Figure 2. The point zL=1-i
is placed on the Smith Chart, which is at the intersection of the Re[zL]=1 circle
and the Im[zL]=-1 curve.
An important curve is given by Im[zL]=0. That is, the set of all impedances
given by zL = R, where the imaginary part is zero and the real part (the
resistance) is greater than or equal to zero. The result is shown in Figure 3:

Figure 3. Constant Reactance Curve for zL=R.

The reactance curve given by Im[zL]=0 is a straight line across the Smith
Chart. There are 3 special points along this curve. On the far left, where zL = 0 +
i0, this
is the point where the load is a short circuit, and thus the magnitude of
all power is reflected.

is 1, so

In the center of the Smith Chart, we have the point given by zL = 1. At this
location,
is 0, so the load is exactly matched to the transmission line. No power
is reflected at this point.
The point on the far right in Figure 3 is given by zL = infinity. This is the open
circuit location. Again, the magnitude of
point, as expected.

is 1, so all power is reflected at this

Finally, we'll add a bunch of constant reactance curves on the Smith Chart, as
shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Smith Chart with Reactance Curves and Resistance Circles.

In Figure 4, we added constant reactance curves for Im[zL]=2, Im[zL]=5,
Im[zL]=0.2, Im[zL]=0.5, Im[zL]=-2, Im[zL]=-5, Im[zL]=-0.2, and Im[zL] = -0.5.
Figure 4 shows the fundamental curves of the Smith Chart.
Applications of smith Chart:
Plotting an impedance
Measurement of VSWR
Measurement of reflection coefficient (magnitude and phase)
Measurement of input impedance of the line

UNIT IV
GUIDED WAVES BETWEEN PARALLEL PLANES
The waves guided or directed by the guided structures are called guided wave.
In general wave equations are derived from Maxwells equation. To obtain the
solution of this problem it is essential to apply certain restrictions or boundary
conditions to the Maxwells equation.
Maxwell's Equations are a set of four vector-differential equations that govern
all of electromagnetics (except at the quantum level, in which case we as
antenna people don't care so much). They were first presented in a complete form
by James Clerk Maxwell back in the 1800s. He didn't come up with them all on
his own, but did add the displacement current term to Ampere's law which made
them complete.
The four equations (written only in terms of E and H, the electric field and the
magnetic field), are given below.

In Gauss' law,
is the volume electric charge density, J is the electric current
density (in Amps/meter-squared), is the permittivity and is the permeability.
The good news about this is that all of electromagnetics is summed up in these
4 equations. The bad news is that no matter how good at math you are, these
can only be solved with an analytical solution in extremely simple cases.
Antennas don't present a very simple case, so these equations aren't used a
whole lot in antenna theory (except for numerical methods, which
numerically solve these approximately using a whole lot of computer power).
The last two equations (Faraday's law and Ampere's law) are responsible
for electromagnetic radiation. The curl operator represents the spatial variation of
the fields, which are coupled to the time variation. When the E-field travels,

it is

altered in space, which gives rise to a time-varying magnetic field. A timevarying magnetic field then varies as a function of location (space), which gives
rise to a time varying electric field. These equations wrap around each other in a
sense, and give rise to a wave equation. These equations predict electromagnetic
radiation as we understand it.

Consider a parallel-plate waveguide of two perfectly conducting plates separated

by a distance b and filled with a dielectric medium having constitutive
parameter as shown in Fig. 9-3. The plates are assumed to be infinite in
extent in the x-direction. (Fields do not vary in the x-direction.)
a) Obtain the time-harmonic field expressions for TM modes in the guide.
b) Determine the cutoff frequency.
a) For TM modes,
- Eq. becomes

The general solution for Eq. (9-44) :

- Boundary conditions (The tangential component of the electric field must vanish
on the surface of the perfectly conducting plates.) :
(i) At y=0 Ez=0
(ii) At y=b Ez=0
- The value of the eigenvalue h :

Types of propagation:
TE waves
TM waves
TEM waves
Transverse electric(TE) wave has the magnetic field component in the direction
of propagation, but no component of the electric field in the same direction.
Hence the TE waves also known as M waves or H-waves.
Transverse magnetic(TM) wave has the electric field in the direction
of propagation, but no component of the magnetic field in the same direction.
Hence the TM waves are also called E-waves.
Transverse electro magnetic(TEM) wave:
No field in the direction of propagation
Attenuation of parallel plane guides:
When the electromagnetic wave propagates through the wave guide,
the amplitude of the fields or the signal strength of the wave decreases as the
distance from the source increases. This is because when the wave strike the
walls of the guide, the loss in the power takes place The attenuation factor is
denoted by .
=Power lost per unit length/2*power transmitted

Attenuation due to finite wall conductivity is inversely proportional to

the square root of wall conductivity, but depends on the mode and the
frequency in a complicated way.
Attenuation due to wall losses in rectangular copper waveguide : Figure 9-7.
TE10 mode has the lowest attenuation in a rectangular waveguide.
The attenuation constant increases rapidly toward infinity as the operating
frequency approaches the cutoff frequency.
Causes for attenuation in waveguides : lossy dielectric and imperfectly
conducting walls.

Cut-off frequency:
The frequency at which wave motion ceases is called cut-off frequency

Propagation Constant:

Wave impedance:
It is the ratio of the component of the electric field to that of magnetic field.
Wave impedance for TEM wave

Wave impedance for TM and TE wave

Phase velocity:
It is the velocity at which energy propagates along a wave guide

The phase velocity and the wave impedance for TEM waves are independent
of the frequency of the waves.
TEM waves cannot exist in a single-conductor hollow (or dielectric-filled)
waveguide of any shape.

Rectangular waveguides are the one of the earliest type of the transmission
lines. They are used in many applications. A lot of components such as
isolators, detectors, attenuators, couplers and slotted lines are available for
various standard waveguide bands between 1 GHz to above 220 GHz.
A rectangular waveguide supports TM and TE modes but not TEM waves because
we cannot define a unique voltage since there is only one conductor in
a rectangular waveguide. The shape of a rectangular waveguide is as shown
below. A material with permittivity e and permeability m fills the inside of the
conductor.
A rectangular waveguide cannot propagate
below some certain frequency. This
frequency is called the cut-off frequency.
Here, we will discuss TM mode rectangular
waveguides and TE mode rectangular
waveguides separately. Lets start with the
TM mode.
TM Modes
Consider the shape of the rectangular waveguide above with dimensions a and
b (assume a>b) and the parameters e and m. For TM waves Hz = 0 and Ez should
be solved from equation for TM mode;

2
xy

Ez + h E z = 0
0

-gz

Since Ez(x,y,z) = Ez (x,y)e , we get the following equation,

If we use the method of separation of variables, that is Ez (x,y)=X(x).Y(y) we get,

Since the right side contains x terms only and the left side contains y terms only,
2
they are both equal to a constant. Calling that constant as k x , we get;

where ky =h -kx

Now, we should solve for X and Y from the preceding equations. Also we have the
boundary conditions of;
0

Ez (0,y)=0
0

Ez (a,y)=0
0

Ez (x,0)=0
0

Ez (x,b)=0
From all these, we conclude that
X(x) is in the form of sin kxx, where kx=mp/a, m=1,2,3,
Y(y) is in the form of sin kyy, where ky =np/b, n=1,2,3,
0

So the solution for Ez (x,y) is

(V/m)
2

From ky =h -kx , we have;

For TM waves, we have

From these equations, we get

where

Here, m and n represent possible modes and it is designated as the TM mn mode.

m denotes the number of half cycle variations of the fields in the x-direction
and n denotes the number of half cycle variations of the fields in the y-direction.

When we observe the above equations we see that for TM modes in

rectangular waveguides, neither m nor n can be zero. This is because of the fact
that the field expressions are identically zero if either m or n is zero. Therefore,
the lowest mode for rectangular waveguide TM mode is TM 11 .
Here, the cut-off wave number is

and therefore,

The cut-off frequency is at the point where g vanishes. Therefore,

Since l=u/f, we have the cut-off wavelength,

At a given operating frequency f, only those frequencies, which have

f <f
c
will propagate. The modes with f<fc will lead to an imaginary b which means
that the field components will decay exponentially and will not propagate. Such
modes are called cut-off or evanescent modes.
The mode with the lowest cut-off frequency is called the dominant mode.
Since TM modes for rectangular waveguides start from TM11 mode, the
dominant frequency is

The wave impedance is defined as the ratio of the transverse electric and
magnetic fields. Therefore, we get from the expressions for Ex and Hy (see the
equations above);

The guide wavelength is defined as the distance between two equal phase planes
along the waveguide and it is equal to

which is thus greater than l, the wavelength of a plane wave in the filling medium.
The phase velocity is

which is greater than the speed of light (plane wave) in the filling material.
Attenuation for propagating modes results when there are losses in the
dielectric and in the imperfectly conducting guide walls. The attenuation constant
due to the losses in the dielectric can be found as follows:

TE Modes
Consider again the rectangular waveguide below with dimensions a and b (assume
a>b) and the parameters e and m.

For TE waves Ez = 0 and Hz should be

solved from equation for TE mode;
2

xy

Hz + h Hz = 0
0

-gz

Since Hz(x,y,z) = Hz (x,y)e , we get the

following equation,

If we use the method of separation of variables, that is Hz (x,y)=X(x).Y(y) we get,

Since the right side contains x terms only and the left side contains y terms only,
2
they are both equal to a constant. Calling that constant as k x , we get;

where ky =h -kx

Here, we must solve for X and Y from the preceding equations. Also we have the
following boundary conditions:

at x=0
at x=a

at y=0

at y=b
From all these, we get

(A/m)
2

From ky =h -kx , we have;

For TE waves, we have

From these equations, we obtain

where

As explained before, m and n represent possible modes and it is shown as the

TEmn mode. m denotes the number of half cycle variations of the fields in the xdirection and n denotes the number of half cycle variations of the fields in the ydirection.
Here, the cut-off wave number is

and therefore,

The cut-off frequency is at the point where g vanishes. Therefore,

Since l=u/f, we have the cut-off wavelength,

At a given operating frequency f, only those frequencies, which have f>fc will
propagate. The modes with f<fc will not propagate.
The mode with the lowest cut-off frequency is called the dominant mode.
Since TE10 mode is the minimum possible mode that gives nonzero field
expressions for rectangular waveguides, it is the dominant mode of a rectangular
waveguide with a>b and so the dominant frequency is

The wave impedance is defined as the ratio of the transverse electric and
magnetic fields. Therefore, we get from the expressions for Ex and Hy (see the
equations above);

The guide wavelength is defined as the distance between two equal phase planes
along the waveguide and it is equal to

which is thus greater than l, the wavelength of a plane wave in the filling medium.
The phase velocity is

which is greater than the speed of the plane wave in the filling material.
The attenuation constant due to the losses in the dielectric is obtained as follows:

After some manipulation, we get

Example:
Consier a length of air-filled copper X-band waveguide, with
dimensions a=2.286cm, b=1.016cm. Find the cut-off frequencies of the first four
propagating modes.
Solution:
From the formula for the cut-off frequency

UNIT V
WAVEGUIDES
Waveguides are basically a device ("a guide") for transporting
electromagnetic energy from one region to another. Typically, waveguides are
hollow metal tubes (often rectangular or circular in cross section). They are
capable of directing power precisely to where it is needed, can handle large
amounts of power and function as a high-pass filter.
The waveguide acts as a high pass filter in that most of the energy above a certain
frequency (the cutoff frequency) will pass through the waveguide, whereas most
of the energy that is below the cutoff frequency will be attenuated by the
waveguide. Waveguides are often used at microwave frequencies (greater than
300 MHz, with 8 GHz and above being more common).
Waveguides are wideband devices, and can carry (or transmit) either power
or communication signals. An example of a hollow metal rectangular
waveguide is shown in the following figure.

Waveguides can bend if the desired application requires it, as shown in the
following Figure.

The above waveguides can be used with waveguide to coaxial cable adapters, as
shown in the next Figure:

We now know what a waveguide is. Lets examine metal cavities with a rectangular
cross section, as shown in Figure 1. Assume the waveguide is filled with
vaccuum, air or some dielectric with the permeability given by
and
the
permittivity given by
.
The waveguide has a width a in the x-direction, and a height b in the y-direction,
with a>b. The z-axis is the direction in which the waveguide is to carry power.

Figure 1. Cross section of a waveguide with long dimension a and short dimension
b.
On this page, I'm going to give the general "rules" for waveguides. That is, I'll
give the equations for key parameters and let you know what the parameters
mean. On the next page, we'll go into the mathematical derivation (which you
would do in engineering graduate school), but you can get away with not knowing
all that math if you don't want to know it.
First and possibly most importantly, this waveguide has a cutoff frequency, fc.
The cutoff frequency is the frequency at which all lower frequencies are
attenuated by the waveguide, and above the cutoff frequency all higher
frequencies propagate

within the waveguide. The cutoff frequency defines the high-pass

filter characteristic of the waveguide: above this frequency, the waveguide
passes power, below this frequency the waveguide attenuates or blocks power.
The cutoff frequency depends on the shape and size of the cross section of
the waveguide. The larger the waveguide is, the lower the cutoff frequency for
that waveguide is. The formula for the cutoff frequency of a rectangular cross
sectioned waveguide is given by:

In the above, c is the speed of light within the waveguide, mu is the permeability
of the material that fills the waveguide, and epsilon is the permittivity of the
material that fills the waveguide. Note that the cutoff frequency is independent of
the short length b of the waveguide.
The cutoff frequency for a waveguide with a circular cross section of radius a is
given by:

Due to Maxwell's Equations, the fields within the waveguide always have
a specific "form" or "waveshape" to them - these are called modes. Assume
the waveguide is oriented such that the energy is to be transmitted along
the waveguide axis, the z-axis. The modes are classified as either TE
('transverse electric' - which indicates that the E-field is orthogonal to the
axis of the waveguide, so that Ez=0) or TM ('transverse magnetic' - which
indicates that the H-field is orthogonal to the axis of the waveguide, so Hz =
0). The modes are further classified as TEij, where the i and j indicate
the number of wave oscillations for a particular field direction in the long
direction (dimension a in Figure 1) and short direction (dimension b in Figure 1),
respectively.
Metal waveguides cannot support the TEM ('transverse electric and magnetic'
-when Ez and Hz are zero) mode. Their exists no solution to Maxwell's
equations that also satisfy the required boundary conditions for this mode to occur.

Maxwell's Equations are not easy to solve. Hence, every math trick someone
can think of will be used in order to make the analysis tractable. We'll start
with discussing the electric vector potential, F. In a source-free region (i.e.,
an area through which waves propagate that is away from sources), we know that:

In the above, D is the Electric Flux Density. If a vector quantity is

divergenceless (as in the above), then it can be expressed as the curl of
another quantity. This means that we can write the solution for D and the
corresponding electric field E as:

In the above, epsilon is the permittivity of the medium through which the wave
propagates. We are purely in the world of mathematics now. The quantity F is
not physical, and is of little practical value. It is simply an aid in performing
our mathematical manipulations.
It turns out that waves (or electromagnetic energy) can not propagate in
a waveguide when both Hz and Ez are equal to zero. Hence, what
field configurations that are allowed will be classified as either TM
(Transverse Magnetic, in which Hz=0) and TE (Transverse Electric, in which
Ez=0). The reason that waves cannot be TEM (Transverse Electromagnetic,
Hz=Ez=0) will be shown towards the end of this derivation.
To perform our analysis, we'll assume that Ez=0 (i.e., we are looking at a TE
mode or field configuration). In this case, working through Maxwell's equations, it
can be shown that the E- and H- fields can be determined from the following
equations:

Therefore, if we can find Fz (the z-component of the vector F), then we can find
the E- and H- fields. In the above equation, k is the wavenumber.
Working through the math of Maxwell's Equations, it can be shown that in a
source-free region, the vector potential F must satisfy the vector wave equation:

[1]
To break this equation down, we will look only at the z-component of the
above equation (that is, Fz). We will also assume that we are looking at a
single frequency, so that the time dependence is assumed to be of the form given
by (we are now using phasors to analyze the equation):

Then the equation [1] can be simplified as follows:

[2]

To solve this equation, we will use the technique of separation of variables.

Here we assume that the function Fz(x, y, z) can be written as the product of
three functions, each of a single variable. That is, we assume that:
[3]
(You might ask, how do we know that the separation of variables
assumption above is valid? We don't - we just assume its correct, and if
it solves the differential equation when we are done doing the analysis then the
assumption is valid). Now we plug in our assumption for Fz (equation [3]) into
equation [2], and we end up with:

[4]
In the above equation, the prime represents the derivative with respect to
the variable in the equation (for instance, Z' represents the derivative of the Zfunction with respect to z). We will break up the variable k^2 into components
(again, just to make our math easier):

[5]
Using equation [5] to breakdown equation [4], we can write:

[6]
The reason that the equations in [6] are valid is because they are only functions
of independent variables - hence, each equation must hold for [5] to be
true everywhere in the waveguide. Solving the above equations using
ordinary differential equations theory, we get:

[7]
The form of the solution in the above equation is different for Z(z). The reason
is that both forms (that for X and Y, and that for Z), are both equally valid
solutions for the differential equations in equation [6]. However, the complex
exponential typically represents travelling waves, and the [real] sinusoids
represent standing waves. Hence, we choose the forms given in [7] for the
solutions. No math rules are violated here; again, we are just choosing forms
that will make our analysis easier.
For now, we can set c5=0, because we want to analyze waves propagating in the
+z-direction. The analysis is identical for waves propagating in the -z-direction,
so this is fairly arbitrary. The solution for Fz can be written as:

[8]
If you remember anything about differential equations, you know there needs to
be some boundary conditions applied in order to determine the constants.
Recalling our physics, we know that the tangential Electric fields at any perfect
conductor
must be zero (why? because
, so if the conductivity approaches infinity
(perfect conductor), then if the tangential E-field is not zero then the
induced current would be infinite).
The tangential fields must be zero, so Ex must be zero when y=0 and when
y=b (see Figure 1 above), no matter what the value for y and z are. In addition, Ey
must be zero when x=0 and when x=a (independent of x and z). We will calculate
Ex:

Ex is given by the above equation. The boundary condition given by

Ex( x, y=0, z)=0

[9]

implies that c4 must be equal to zero. This is the only way that boundary
condition given in [9] will be true for all x and z positions. If you don't believe
this, try to show that it is incorrect. You will quickly determine that c4 must be
zero for the boundary condition in [9] to be satisfied everywhere it is required.
Next, the second boundary condition,
Ex(x, y=b, z)=0

[10]

implies something very unique. The only way for the condition in [10] to be true
for all values of x and z whenever y=b, we must have:

If this is to be true everywhere, c3 could be zero. However, if c3 is zero (and we

have already determined that c4 is zero), then all of the fields would end up
being zero, because the function Y(y) in [7] would be zero everywhere. Hence, c3
cannot be zero if we are looking for a nonzero solution. Hence, the only
alternative is if the above equation implies that:

This last equation is fundamental to understanding waveguides. It states that the

only solutions for Y(y) function must end up being sinusoids, that an
integer number of multiples of a half-wavelength. These are the only type of
functions that

satisfy the differential equation in [6] and the required boundary conditions. This is
an extremely important concept.
If we invoke our other two boundary conditions:
Ey(x=0, y, z)=0
Ey(x=a, y, z)=0
Then (using identical reasoning to that above), we can determine that c2=0 and
that:

This statement implies that the only functions of x that satisfy the
differential equation and the required boundary conditions must be an integer
multiple of half-sinusoids within the waveguide.
Combining these results, we can write the solution for Fz as:

In the above, we have combined the remaining nonzero constants c1, c3, and c6
into a single constant, A, for simplicity. We have found that only
certain distributions (or field configurations) will satisfy the required differential
equations and the boundary conditions. Each of these field configurations will be
known as a mode. Because we derived the results above for the TE case, the
modes will be known as TEmn, where m indicates the number of half-cycle
variations within the waveguide for X(x), and n indicates the number of halfcycle variations within the waveguide for Y(y).
Using the field relationships:

We can write the allowable field configurations for the TE (transverse electric)
modes within a waveguide:

In the above, the constants are written as Amn - this implies that the amplitude
for each mode can be independent of the others; however, the field components
for a single mode must all be related (that is, Ex and Hy do not have
independent coefficients).
Cutoff Frequency (fc)
At this point in the analysis, we are able to say something intelligent. Recall that
the components of the wavenumber must satisfy the relationship:

[3]
Since kx and ky are restrained to only take on certain values, we can plug this fact
in:

[4]
An interesting question arises at this point: What is the lowest frequency in which
the waveguide will propagate the TE mode?
For propagation to occur,
. If this is true, then kz is a real number, so
that the field components (equations [1] and [2]) will contain complex
exponentials,
which represent propagating waves. If on the other hand,
, then kz will be
an imaginary number, in which case the complex exponential above in
equations [1-2] becomes a decaying real exponential. In this case, the
fields will not propagate but instead quickly die out within the waveguide.
Electromagnetic fields that die off instead of propagate are referred to as
evanescent waves.
To find the lowest frequency in which propagation can occur, we set kz=0. This
is the transition between the cutoff region (evanescent) and the propagation
region. Setting kz=0 in equation [4], we obtain:

[5]
If m and n are both zero, then all of the field components in [1-2] become zero,
so we cannot have this condition. The lowest value the left hand side of equation
[5] can take occurs when m=1 and n=0. The solution to equation [5] when m=1
and n=0, gives the cutoff frequency for this waveguide:

Any frequency below the cutoff frequency (fc) will only result in evanescent
or decaying modes. The waveguide will not transport energy at these frequencies.
In addition, if the waveguide is operating at a frequency just above fc, then the
only mode that is a propagating mode will be the TE10 mode. All other modes
will be decaying. Hence, the TE10 mode, since it has the lowest cutoff
frequency, is referred to as the dominant mode.
Every mode that can exist within the waveguide has its own cutoff frequency.
That is, for a given mode to propagate, the operating frequency must be above the
cutoff frequency for that mode. By solving [5] in a more general form, the
cutoff frequency for the TEmn mode is given by:

Although we haven't discussed the TM (transverse magnetic) mode, it will turn

out that the dominant TM mode has a higher cutoff frequency than the
dominant TE mode.
Determining the fields for the TMz (Transverse Magnetic to the z direction)
modes follows a similar procedure to that for the TEz case. To begin, we'll
start by discussing the magnetic vector potential, A. This is a non-physical
quantity that is often in used antenna theory to simplify the mathematics of
Maxwell's Equations.

To understand the magnetic vector potential, note that since the magnetic flux
density B must always be divergenceless:

If a vector quantity is divergenceless, then it can be expressed as the curl of

another vector quantity. In math notation, this means that B can be written as:

In a source free region, it can be shown that A must satisfy the wave equation:

In addition, the TMz fields can be found from the Az component of the magnetic
vector potential, via the following relationships:

To solve for Az (and hence determine the E- and H- fields), we follow the
same procedure as for the TEz case. That is, we use separation of variables and
solve the wave equation for the z-component of A, then apply boundary conditions
that force the tangential components of the E-fields to be zero on the
metallic surfaces. Performing this procedure, which will not be repeated here, we
obtain the solution for Az:

[1]
The corresponding TMz fields for waves propagating in the +z-direction are:

In the above, k is again the wavenumber, and Bmn is a constant, which

determines the amplitude of the mn mode (a function of how much power is
applied to the waveguide at that frequency).
Before discussing the modes, we must note that TM0n and TMm0 modes
cannot exist; that is, m and n must be at least 1. The reason comes from equation
[1] above - if either m or n are zero, then Az is equal to zero, so all the fields
derived must also be zero. Hence, the lowest order mode for the TM case is the
TM11 mode. The same procedures can be applied from the TE case to
determine the cutoff frequencies for the TMmn mode:

MODES

Cylindrical waveguide
Using the complete formulation in the simplest limit possible, global
electromagnetic modes are here studied in a large aspect ratio, circular
cross-section vacuum cavity equivalent to a cylindrical waveguide.
Classical electrodynamics [43] show that the EM eigenmode spectrum consists
of two types of solutions, the transverse electric
and the transverse magnetic
polarizations with frequencies depending on l the radial and m the azimuthal
mode numbers. These results are reproduced numerically to verify that the wave
equations (16) can indeed be solved in the vacuum using standard LFEM and
CFEM discretizations, without introducing spurious modes of numerical origin. It
is also important to validate the numerical implementation using a simple test case,
checking that the numerical solutions converge to the analytical values with rates
expected from the order of the approximations.
The cylindrical waveguide is modeled in 2-D, with a circular large aspect
ratio equilibrium defined with a minor radius a chosen so as to obtain the
analytical eigenmode frequencies in GHz exactly equal to the roots of the
Bessel function (table 1).

Table 1: Cylindrical waveguide parameters.

As the equilibrium merely produces the geometry and the mesh, the safety factor
does not affect the eigenfrequency spectrum; using a large value for , it is
however possible to everywhere align with the axis of the cylinder and separate
the components of the TE and the TM polarizations. The complete toroidal
wave

equations (16) are then discretized in the large aspect ratio cavity, relying on
numerical cancellations to recover the cylindrical limit.
To compute the eigenmode spectrum, an oscillating source current (eq.22)
is driven with a small imaginary part in the excitation frequency
. The power relation (eq.48) yields a complex response
function
which has poles
along the real axis that correspond to the
solutions of the discretized wave equations. The eigenfrequencies are calculated
by
scanning in the complex plane

with an increment

and a constant

chosen so as to resolve the response peaks in

. The structure of an
eigenmode is obtained in the limit
when the cavity is resonantly excited at
the maximum of a narrow response peak.
In order to verify that the eigenfrequency spectrum of this cylindrical waveguide
is complete and does not contain any spurious ''polluting`` mode, two broad scans
are performed from 10 kHz to 10 GHz with a high resolution in
frequency
and a low resolution in space
for CFEM). All the Fourier modes

for LFEM,
representable by the

numerical discretization are excited with azimuthal

for TE modes,
currents
and axial currents
for TM modes. Fig.6 summarizes the result obtained
with LFEM, showing that every mode found numerically could be identified in a
one to one correspondence with the analytical result. Modes which have low
quantum numbers (l,m) are, as expected, obtained with a better precision;
pushing the resolution to the lowest limit of 2 mesh points per wavelength
(m=4), the deviations become of course important, but the spectrum
remains unpolluted (remember fig.3, root b). The same analysis has been
repeated with CFEM and leads to results which are much more precise. As an
illustration, the eigenmode
has here been calculated on a coarse homogeneous mesh
. The
eigenfrequency obtained numerically
with the analytical result
vector plot of

GHz is in excellent agreement

=5.3314 GHz; fig.5 shows the eigenmode structure in a

.

Figure 5: Re(A_perp) for an eigenmode TE_11 calculated with CFEM.

Figure 6: Analytical (circles) and LFEM (x-marks) eigenfrequency spectrum.

A question remained when the boundary conditions were defined in sect.2.2.2:
it concerned the implementation of the regularity conditions which is formally
not
sufficient to forbid a weakly singular (
) behavior of the field in the
center of the mesh. Fig.5 shows that the field is regular all over the cylinder
radius, suggesting that the singularity is not strong enough to show up using
a FEM discretization on a regular mesh. The only way we have found to observe
it, was to strongly accumulate the mesh points towards the center (for example by
dividing 5 times the radial mesh interval closest to the axis by two, leading to
radial mesh
spacings
).
Having verified that the solutions calculated with the wave equations
(eq.16) behave in a satisfactory manner, the quality of the LFEM and
CFEM discretizations is finally best judged in a convergence study
monitoring the precision of the frequency and the gauge as a function of the
spatial resolution.

Figure 7: Convergence to the analytical result: relative frequency deviation Delta

f versus the number of mesh intervals (N=N_s=N_theta) for the
eigenmodes TE_01,TE_02,TE_11,TM_00} using LFEM (x-marks) and CFEM
(circles).
Fig.7 shows the convergence of
,

and

, where

for the eigenmodes

refers to the frequency obtained numerically

and
to the analytical result. Eigenfrequencies converge to the analytical values
as using LFEM and almost using CFEM, with an excellent initial precision
better than 1% for two mesh points per wavelength.

Figure 8: Precision of the gauge versus the number of mesh

intervals (N=N_s=N_theta) for the eigenmodes TE_01,TE_02,TE_11,TM_00
using LFEM (x-marks) and CFEM (circles).
Convergence is also achieved for the gauge: fig.8 shows that the volume averaged
gauge precision
using CFEM.

converges to zero as

using LFEM, and

To summarize, the calculations performed with the toroidal PENN code used
here in the simplest limit possible show that Maxwell's equations (16) solved
in a cylindrical cavity produce the complete physical spectrum without
introducing numerically produced ''polluting`` modes. Both, the LFEM and
the CFEM discretization schemes yield solutions which are numerically sane and
converge to the analytical value with rates expected from the order of the
interpolations.
Boundary conditions
Let us review the general boundary conditions on the field vectors at a surface
between medium 1 and medium 2:

(34)
(35)
(36)
(37)

where is used for the surface change density (to avoid confusion with the
conductivity), and is the surface current density. Here, is a unit vector normal
to the surface, directed from medium 2 to medium 1. We have seen in Section 4.4
that for normal incidence an electromagnetic wave falls off very rapidly inside the
surface of a good conductor. Equation (4.35) implies that in the limit of perfect
conductivity (
) the tangential component of vanishes, whereas that of
may remain finite. Let us examine the behaviour of the normal components.
Let medium 1 be a good conductor for which
, whilst medium 2 is a
perfect insulator. The surface change density is related to the currents
flowing inside the conductor. In fact, the conservation of charge requires that
(38)

However,

, so it follows from Eq. (6.1)(a) that

(39)

It is clear that the normal component of within the conductor also becomes
vanishingly small as the conductivity approaches infinity.
If vanishes inside a perfect conductor then the curl of also vanishes, and the
time rate of change of is correspondingly zero. This implies that there are no
oscillatory fields whatever inside such a conductor, and that the boundary values
of the fields outside are given by
(40)
(41)
(42)
(43)

Here, is a unit normal at the surface of the conductor pointing into the
conductor. Thus, the electric field is normal and the magnetic field tangential at
the surface of a perfect conductor. For good conductors these boundary conditions
yield excellent representations of the geometrical configurations of external fields,
but they lead to the neglect of some important features of real fields, such as
losses in cavities and signal attenuation in wave guides.
In order to estimate such losses it is useful to see how the tangential and normal
fields compare when is large but finite. Equations (4.5) and (4.34) yield
(44)

at the surface of a conductor (provided that the wave propagates into

the conductor). Let us assume, without obtaining a complete solution, that a wave
with

very nearly tangential and very nearly normal is propagated along the surface
of the metal. According to the Faraday-Maxwell equation
(45)

just outside the surface, where is the component of the propagation vector
along the surface. However, Eq. (6.5) implies that a tangential component
of
is accompanied by a small tangential
component of
. By comparing these two expressions, we
obtain
(46)

where is the skin depth (see Eq. (4.36)) and

. It is clear that the ratio of
the tangential component of to its normal component is of order the skin depth
divided by the wavelength. It is readily demonstrated that the ratio of the
normal component of
to its tangential component is of this same
magnitude. Thus, we can see that in the limit of high conductivity, which means
vanishing skin depth, no fields penetrate the conductor, and the boundary
conditions are those given by Eqs. (6.4). Let us investigate the solution of the
homogeneous wave equation subject to such boundary conditions.
Cavities with rectangular boundaries
Consider a vacuum region totally enclosed by rectangular conducting walls. In this
case, all of the field components satisfy the wave equation
(47)

where represents any component of

or
. The boundary conditions (6.4)
require that the electric field is normal to the walls at the boundary whereas
the magnetic field is tangential. If
, , and are the dimensions of the
cavity, then it is readily verified that the electric field components are
(48)
(49)
(50)

where
(51)
(52)
(53)

with ,

integers. The allowed frequencies are given by

(54)

It is clear from Eq. (6.9) that at least two of the integers , , must be different
from zero in order to have non-vanishing fields. The magnetic fields obtained
by

the use of
automatically satisfy the appropriate boundary conditions,
and are in phase quadrature with the electric fields. Thus, the sum of the
total electric and magnetic energies within the cavity is constant, although the two
terms oscillate separately.
The amplitudes of the electric field components are not independent, but are
related by the divergence condition
, which yields
(55)

There are, in general, two linearly independent vectors

that satisfy this
condition, corresponding to two polarizations. (The exception is the case that
one of the integers , ,
is zero, in which case
is
fixed
in
direction.) Each vector is accompanied by a magnetic field at right angles. The
fields corresponding to a given set of integers ,
, and
constitute
a
particular mode of vibration of the cavity. It is evident from standard Fourier
theory that the different modes are orthogonal (i.e., they are normal modes) and
that they form a complete set. In other words, any general electric and
magnetic fields which satisfy the boundary conditions (6.4) can be
unambiguously decomposed into some linear combination of all of the various
possible normal modes of the cavity. Since each normal mode oscillates at a
specific frequency it is clear that if we are given the electric and magnetic
fields inside the cavity at time
then the subsequent behaviour of the fields is
uniquely determined for all time.
The conducting walls gradually absorb energy from the cavity, due to their finite
resistivity, at a rate which can easily be calculated. For finite the small tangential
component of at the walls can be estimated using Eq. (6.5):
(56)

Now, the tangential component of

at the walls is slightly different from
that given by the ideal solution. However, this is a small effect and can be
neglected to leading order in
. The time averaged energy flux into the
walls is given by
(57)

where

is the peak value of the tangential magnetic field at the walls predicted

by the ideal solution. According to the boundary condition (6.4)(d),

the peak value of the surface current density
resistance,

is equal to

. It is helpful to define a surface

(58)

where
(59)

This approach makes it clear that the dissipation of energy is due to ohmic
heating in a thin layer, whose thickness is of order the skin depth, on the
surface of the conducting walls.
The quality factor of a resonant cavity
The quality factor

of a resonant cavity is defined

(60)

For a specific normal mode of the cavity this quantity is independent of the
mode amplitude. By conservation of energy the power dissipated in ohmic
losses is minus the rate of change of the stored energy
. We can write a
differential equation for the behaviour of
as a function of time:
(61)

where
is the oscillation frequency of the normal mode in question. The solution
to the above equation is
(62)

This time dependence of the stored energy suggests that the oscillations of the
fields in the cavity are damped as follows:
(63)

where we have allowed for a shift

of the resonant frequency as well as the
damping. A damped oscillation such as this does not consist of a pure
frequency.
Instead, it is made up of a superposition of frequencies around
Standard Fourier analysis yields

(64)

where
(65)

It follows that
(66)

The resonance shape has a full width at half-maximum equal to

. For a
constant input voltage, the energy of oscillation in the cavity as a function
of frequency follows the resonance curve in the neighbourhood of a
particular
resonant frequency. It can be seen that the ohmic losses, which determine for a
particular mode, also determine the maximum amplitude of the oscillation
when the resonance condition is exactly satisfied, as well as the width of the
resonance (i.e., how far off the resonant frequency the system can be driven and
still yield a significant oscillation amplitude).
Cylindrical cavities
Let us apply the methods of the previous section to the TM modes of a right
circular cylinder of radius . We can write

where

and

satisfies the equation

are cylindrical polar coordinates. Let

It follows that

or

where

. The above equation is known as Bessel's equation. The two linearly

independent solutions of Bessel's equation are denoted

and

. In the

limit
these solutions behave as
16
More exactly

for

and
the limit

and

, respectively, to lowest order .

, where

is Euler's constant. Clearly, the

, whereas the

are badly behaved.

The asymptotic behaviour of both solutions at large

is

are well behaved in

Thus, for

the solutions take the form of gradually decaying oscillations

which are in phase quadrature. The behaviour of

Fig. 21.
Figure 21: The Bessel functions
Since the axis

(solid line) and

is shown in

(dotted line)

is included in the cavity the radial eigenfunction must be

regular at the origin. This immediately rules out the

most general solution for a TM mode is

The

and

are the eigenvalues of

solutions. Thus, the

, and are determined by the solutions of

The above constraint ensures that the tangential electric field is zero on the
conducting walls surrounding the cavity (
).

The most general solution for a TE mode is

In this case, the

are determined by the solution of

where denotes differentiation with respect to the argument. The above

constraint ensures that the normal magnetic field is zero on the conducting walls
surrounding the cavity. The oscillation frequency of both the TM and TE modes is
given by

If is the ordinal number of a zero of a particular Bessel function of order (

increases with increasing values of the argument), then each mode is characterized
by three integers,

conventionally denoted

, as in the rectangular case. The

th zero of

is

[so,

th zero of

is

]. Likewise, the

denoted
. Table 2 shows the first few zeros of ,
,
, and
. It is clear
that for fixed and the lowest frequency mode (i.e., the mode with the lowest
value of ) is a TE mode. The mode with the next highest frequency is also a TE
mode. The next highest frequency mode is a TM mode, and so on.

Table 2: The first few values of

, and

1 2.4048 3.8317 0.0000 1.8412

2 5.5201 7.0156 3.8317 5.3314
3 8.6537 10.173 7.0156 8.5363
4 11.792 13.324 10.173 11.706

Cavity resonators are enclosed metal boxes.

Electromagnetic fields are confined inside the boxes. Radiation and high-resistance
effects are eliminated, resulting in a very high Q (quality factor)
A rectangular waveguide with both ends (z=0 and z=d) closed by a conducting wall
(Figure 9-8) : multiple reflections and standing waves

Resonant frequency of rectangular cavity resonator

Degenerate modes : different modes having the same resonant frequency.

Dominant mode : the mode with the lowest resonant frequency for a given cavity
size.

A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior,

that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonant frequencies,
with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be
either electromagnetic or mechanical (including acoustic). Resonators are used to
either generate waves of specific frequencies or to select specific frequencies
from a signal. Musical instruments use acoustic resonators that produce sound
waves of specific tones.
A cavity resonator, usually used in reference to electromagnetic resonators, is
one in which waves exist in a hollow space inside the device. Acoustic
cavity resonators, in which sound is produced by air vibrating in a cavity
with one opening, are known as Helmholtz resonators.
Cavity resonators
A cavity resonator is a hollow conductor blocked at both ends and along which
an electromagnetic wave can be supported. It can be viewed as a waveguide
short-circuited at both ends (see Microwave cavity).
The cavity has interior surfaces which reflect a wave of a specific frequency.
When a wave that is resonant with the cavity enters, it bounces back and forth
within the cavity, with low loss (see standing wave). As more wave energy enters
the cavity, it combines with and reinforces the standing wave, increasing its
intensity.
The cavity magnetron is a vacuum tube with a filament in the center of
an evacuated, lobed, circular cavity resonator. A perpendicular magnetic

field is

imposed by a permanent magnet. The magnetic field causes the electrons,

attracted to the (relatively) positive outer part of the chamber, to spiral outward in
a circular path rather than moving directly to this anode. Spaced about the
rim of the chamber are cylindrical cavities. The cavities are open along their
length and so connect the common cavity space. As electrons sweep past these
openings they induce a resonant high frequency radio field in the cavity, which in
turn causes the electrons to bunch into groups. A portion of this field is
extracted with a short antenna that is connected to a waveguide (a metal tube
usually of rectangular cross section). The waveguide directs the extracted RF
energy to the load, which may be a cooking chamber in a microwave oven or a
high gain antenna in the case of radar.
The klystron, tube waveguide, is a beam tube including at least two apertured
cavity resonators. The beam of charged particles passes through the apertures
of the resonators, often tunable wave reflection grids, in succession. A
collector electrode is provided to intercept the beam after passing through the
resonators. The first resonator causes bunching of the particles passing
through it. The bunched particles travel in a field-free region where further
bunching occurs, then the bunched particles enter the second resonator giving up
their energy to excite it into oscillations. It is a particle accelerator that works
in conjunction with a specifically tuned cavity by the configuration of the
structures. On the beamline of an accelerator system, there are specific sections
that are cavity resonators for RF.
The reflex klystron is a klystron utilizing only a single apertured cavity
resonator through which the beam of charged particles passes, first in one
direction. A repeller electrode is provided to repel (or redirect) the beam after
passage through the resonator back through the resonator in the other direction
and in proper phase to reinforce the oscillations set up in the resonator.
In a laser, light is amplified in a cavity resonator which is usually composed of
two or more mirrors. Thus an optical cavity, also known as a resonator, is a cavity
with walls which reflect electromagnetic waves (light). This will allow standing
wave modes to exist with little loss outside the cavity.